"Bottoms Up" and the King's Shilling
📆 Two hundred years ago, recruitment had its own version of a sign-on bonus.
It was called the King’s shilling.
Accept it… and your next stop was the Napoleonic Wars.
The Crown’s recruiters and press gangs were rife across Britain’s ports and taverns 🇬🇧 .
Legend has it recruiters would slip a shilling into a man’s ale.
🍻 “Bottoms up!”
😮 You discover the coin too late.
🤦♂️ You’ve taken the King’s money.
Some would turn their mugs upside down after finishing.
To show no coin remained at the bottom.
Today, a sign-on bonus replaces what you leave behind.
Back then, it committed you to what lay ahead.
Fun Facts
A shilling in the early 1800s was roughly a day’s wage for a labourer. Not exactly life-changing money. But once it was in your pocket, it legally bound you to serve.
Quite the ROI for the Crown.
-⚓️-
The Royal Navy needed tens of thousands of sailors to man its fleet. Volunteers weren’t enough. So press gangs filled the gap. Impressment was technically legal in Britain at the time.
The Navy framed it as a national necessity during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Maritime Origins Series
Maritime Origins is a storytelling series created by Jason Nangle, Founder of Angle Recruitment, a global maritime recruitment and executive search firm.
The series explores the fascinating history behind everyday phrases that originated at sea, as well as the remarkable stories, traditions and characters that have shaped maritime culture.
Many sayings still used today were first spoken by sailors navigating the challenges of life on board ships. Alongside these phrase origins, the series also highlights lesser-known maritime stories, legends and historical moments from the world of shipping.
Through short stories and visual posts, Maritime Origins connects the language, heritage and traditions of seafarers with the modern maritime industry.
New posts in the series launch every Tuesday on LinkedIn and are then shared across other platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X. Follow
Jason Nangle on LinkedIn and Angle Recruitment across your preferred social platforms.
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In a hammock in a wooden sailing ship. A woman’s leg sticks up from a nearby hammock, “From ‘Show a leg’… ‘Shake a leg’ stuck!”
