Folios 349-350: Thomas Walbeoff, [Regulating Captain], Poole. Acknowledges receipt...

Folios 349-350: Thomas Walbeoff, [Regulating Captain], Poole. Acknowledges receipt of the letter concerning the statement by Rear Admiral [Arthur] Phillip that he cannot tell how many men have been impressed at Poole because they have been allowed to enter at the rendezvous. The fourth article of his instructions tells him to call men on deck and invite them to enter the Navy, but the people of Poole, wherever possible, land their men or hide them among their cargoes of salt fish, so that most of the men impressed are taken on shore. Often when he invites them to enter the Navy they say they have been at sea but he cannot tell for how long, they frequently say they have spent two summers and a winter in Newfoundland and so are not liable to be impressed. He encourages men to become Volunteers, and gets many men that way. At the moment he has a man at the rendezvous in exactly this case, who reports that he has been at sea for four and a half years, part of that time in His Majesty's service. He usually enters such men as Volunteers, and had never been given any different orders until Rear Admiral Philip visited Poole. He now enters such men as Impressed Volunteers. It is useful if such men think they are liable to severe punishment if they desert after they desert if they are Volunteers.