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C R  HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE dieu ET MON DROIT  By the King. 
A PROCLAMATION For the more speedy bringing in of Seamen and Mariners.  
CHARLES R.  
FOr the better Supply of His Majesties Fleet with such a Number of Seamen and Mariners as shall be found necessary to its full compliment, and for prevention of such unlawful practices as are daily used for Concealing of Persons of that Calling and Condition from the Press that is gone out for His Majesties Service; His Majesty by advice of His Privy Council hath thought fit to Declare His Royal Will and Pleasure, That all Protections whatsoever heretofore granted, whereby the Seamen or Mariners serving in any Merchants Ship, or in the Ship of any Privateer, are exempted, or may pretend to be exempted from being Prest and taken into the Service of His Majesties Fleet, shall cease, and are hereby absolutely determined and recalled. Nevertheless, it shall and may be lawful to, and for any Merchants Ship, or Ships belonging to any Privateer, to be Navigated by such foreign Seamen and Mariners as they can procure, without having any such foreign Seamen or master taken from them by His Majesties Officers, upon any pretence whatsoever; But all Seamen and Mariners who are His Majesties Natural born Subjects, and shall be found in any such Ships, shall and may be taken from thence by His Majesties Officers, and disposed of in His Majesties Fleet, any former Protection, privilege, or Exemption to the contrary notwithstanding. And all Merchants Ships and Privateers not Navigated with foreigners, as aforesaid, are hereby restrained from going to Sea. And because divers Seamen and Mariners pretend to render themselves to His Majesties Service, by going on board several of His Majesties Ships, and there procure a Pass or Ticket from the Chief Officers of such Ships, licencing them to go and continue on shore for a few days upon their private occasions, and when by pretence of such Passes or Tickets they have escaped the Press, withdraw themselves, and do not return to His Majesties Ships at the time appointed; Therefore His Majesty doth Declare, that no such Pass or Ticket shall be allowed or admitted, to excuse any Seaman or master from being Pressed into the Service of His Majesties Fleet, unless such Seaman or master producing such Pass or Ticket, shall be found in the Company of, and be owned by some Officer of the Ship, to which the said Pass or Ticket expresses him to belong, who will be responsible for his forth-coming. And to the end that no Inn-keeper, Alehouse-keeper, Victualler, or Owners of private Houses, may presume to Harbour or Conceal any Seamen or Mariners, in a time when their Service is of so much importance to His Majesty, and all His Dominions; His Majesty doth expressly Charge and Command all manner of Persons, having any Lodgers in their House of that Calling or Condition, That they forthwith discover them to some of His Majesties Officers, that they may be seized and secured for His Majesties service. And if any such Inn-keeper; Victualler; or other person, receiving of Lodgers, shall be found to have wilfully harboured or concealed any Seaman or master, Then the Person so concealing, shall either suffer the utmost penalties of Law, for such his contempt; or, if it shall be found more expedient for His Majesties service, shall himself be Pressed to serve in His Majesties Fleet, in stead of the Person so by him Concealed: And moreover, the Seaman or master so withdrawing and Concealing himself, shall, when discovered, be grievously punished, and suffer the utmost severity of the Law.  
And that His Majesties Service in these and all other occasions relating to His Majesties Fleet, may be the better carried on; His Majesty doth hereby Require the Masters, and all other Officers and Brethren of the Trinity House, That they be from time to time Aiding and Assisting to the Commissioners of His Majesties Navy, and Obedient to such Directions as they shall receive from them. And moreover, His Majesty doth Require all Lord-Lieutenants, Deputy-Lieutenants, Iustices of Peace, Constables, and all other His loving Subjects whatsoever, That they be Aiding and Assisting to all and every the Press-Masters to be Employed on this Service, and that they take care in their several Places and Callings, That His Majesties Service be effectually performed in the Impresting of all Seamen, Mariners, Shipwrights, and Caulkers upon this occasion, and such onely, and that the same be of Strong and Able Bodies, fit for His Majesties present Service: And for their better encouragement, and the better performance hereof, His Majesty hath Commanded, and doth hereby Authorize and Command the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Navy, That they do from time to time defray all such Costs and Charges, as shall by them be thought requisite to be laid out by themselves or others in Impresting, or Conducting to the Fleet, the said Seamen, Mariners, Shipwrights, and Caulkers, and such onely, for His Majesties present Service, or in the Carrying and Conducting of the men so Prest, unto the said Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesties Navy, and that immediately upon the presenting of them unto the said Commissioners of the Navy, and without further delay. And His Majesty Commands all His Subjects whom it doth or may concern, That they see His Majesties Pleasure herein before Declared, to be exactly obeied, and in all things to be performed and fulfilled, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost perils.  
Given at the Court at Whitehall the 10th day of April 1672. In the 24th year of His Majesties Reign.  
God save the King.   

In the SAVOY, Printed by the Assigns of John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1672.