Folios 398-399: Edward Grey, Regulating Captain, Hull. Acknowledges the request to...

Folios 398-399: Edward Grey, Regulating Captain, Hull. Acknowledges the request to provide a report on Mr. Watts, Midshipman and the men on board the Boat when Charles West was impressed on 9th last August off Scarborough as reported by Lieutenant Keenor. Lieutenant Keenor sent Mr. Watts on the Brig Nathaniel. when the crew were mustered, West said he was past 18 and had been at sea five and a half years and appeared to be a suitable person to impress. The vessel had no protection. After the indentures were examined they were offered to the Master who refused them. The Master said that if West was taken, the indentures should go with him and the Master charged and Mr. Watts , the Midshipman was intoxicated. Lieutenant Keenor and the boat crew state that Mr. Watts was perfectly sober. Their opinion is reliable. Mr. Watts and crew considered the Brig was not leaky, the pumps were manned but nothing but froth visible. (It is customary that a vessels crew employ this stratagem in order to save their men from the impress). The Master asked Lieutenant Keenor to send a replacement man, but there remained seven men and a boy sufficient to work that vessel of 150 tons, and also the Lieutenant did not want to send a replacement man as far as Shoreham. If the vessel was in distress, she could have been taken into Scarborough. Ten days after the Argus cutter arrive at Hull, Charles West was regulated and retained as a suitable age and time at sea. His indentures were given to him and he was sent to the Nore on 2oth of last month. During that same cruise, Lieutenant Keenor impressed two other apprentices, they had not served three years and were discharged with a certificate each for protection until they joined their mater. Mr. Maling, Shipowner, refers to his Apprentice as a boy and only 17 years old. The Captain is sorry that Owners and Masters are guilty of fraudulent practices respecting Mates, Carpenters and Apprentices. Another young man was impressed, he was an apprentice and had served five years at sea and the Owner and Master said he was 17 year-old, He appeared to be nineteen years and a Baptist Certificate was requested. When the certificate arrived the figure had been scratched out and another inserted. A replacement certificate was requested with the year tp be written in letters not figures and signed by the Parson and attested by two respectable inhabitants, As no certificate has arrived, for a month it would seem this was not the method to save him from the impress. The Captain encloses a letter form Mr. Maling and the daily reports of HM's ships in the Humber.

Folios 400-401: folios 398-399. A letter dated 10 September 1803 by William Maling, Shipowner, Hendon, Nr. Sunderland to the Admiralty. Charles West, aged about seventeen years and an indentured apprentice on the Brig Nathaniel under Edward Laing, Master. West was impressed at sea off the Yorkshire coast by Lieutenant Keenor from the Argus cutter. The Brig was on her first voyage and a leak observed the previous day. The Midshipmen was in a state of intoxication. Mr.Maling asks for the apprentice to be discharged and returned.