waterways of the country.

In the reign of Richard II. the jurisdiction of Admirals was denned as
extending, in a certain particular, to the "main stream of great
rivers nigh the sea." [Footnote: 15 Richard II. cap. 2.] Had the same
line of demarcation been observed in the pressing of those whose
occupations lay upon rivers, there would have been little cause for
outcry or complaint. But the Admiralty, the successors of the ancient
"Guardians of the Sea" whose powers were so clearly limited by the
Ricardian statute, gradually extended the old-time jurisdiction until,
for the purposes of the impress, it included all waterways, whether
"nigh the sea" or inland, natural or artificial, whereon it was
possible for craft to navigate. All persons working upon or habitually
using such waterways were regarded as "using the sea," and later
warrants expressly authorised the gangs to take as many of them as
they should be able, not excepting even the ferryman. The extension
was one of tremendous consequence, since it swept into the Navy
thousands of men who, like the Ely and Cambridge bargemen, were
"hardy, strong fellows, who never failed to make good seamen."
[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1486--Capt. Baird, 29 April
1755.]

Amongst these denizens of the country's waterways the position of the
Thames wherryman was peculiar in that from very early times he had
been exempt from the ordinary incidence of the press on condition of
his periodically supplying from his own numbers a certain quota of
able-bodied men for the use of the fleet. The rule applied to all
watermen using the river between Gravesend and Windsor, and members of
the fraternity who "withdrew and hid themselves" at the time of the
making of such levies, were liable to be imprisoned for two years and