Quote:robkelk wrote:They took British subjects, not just deserters--and they considered Americans to be British subjects. Also, some of the people they took really were RN deserters, who had subsequently become US citizens--which they again didn't respect.
As I understand history, the RN did that to everyone else's ships, military and civilian, but only took deserters from the RN. Was I misinformed?
Note that in those days the Royal Navy "recruited" sailors by sending gangs of men ashore to find likely candidates, whack them over the head, and drag them back to the ship. The "deserters" were more like escaped kidnapping victims or runaway slaves. So, I'm not surprised that gets left out of history as taught in Canada. Sort of like the way US history classes tend to omit the US opportunists who used that dispute as an excuse to try and conquer Canada...