After Him! (RN Procedure for Blatant Desertion)

There are...

a helluva lot of Kiwis and Oz citizens whose father/grandfathers/greatgrandfathers jumped ship and never returned because they fancied staying. Happen a lot in the pacific islands and South America too.

I don't know if you can fix it this way in your story but usually the escapee did not return from shore leave and shore leave ended only a very few hours before the ship sailed with the tide. Thus it was rare for the captain to send out a search party. There was no time.

If your sailor must be denied shore leave then make him slip o.b. very close to sailing time when everyone is horrendously busy and there isn't time to chase him. Most sailors of your time could not swim, by the way.

I understand the RN would have him posted as awol and there'd be hell to pay if he were caught. However I believe there are records of sailors who jumped ship in the Pacific and when they wanted to return home, rejoined the navy or merchant navy under a different name!

There's a big difference between AWOL and desertion. However, if the ship was in the process of leaving port with no intention of returning, it would be considered desertion. In a time of war, that could be considered a capital offense.
In peacetime, probably not. On the other hand, the ship's captain has the authority of God Almighty. If he orders the man shot, the next thing heard should be BANG.

I'm sorry...

I can't access, in a hurry, my naval resources, but I seem to remember that a man who 'jumped ship' by going o.b. or sneaking away was a deserter, but a man who did not return from shore leave was allowed to be awol. At least I think this was so with sailing ships because of winds and tides and things which could quickly change.

This is the18thC we're talking about isn't it AZ?

Check in the Resources by Era sticky where the British Maritime Museum url and details can be found. There are willing and helpful experts there who will answer nice polite queries from writers wanting to get it right!

If you read ship's logs from the period they explain the various reasons why people left the ship and "discharged dead" and "ran" are two of the commonest. I'm not sure if the log made much of a distinction between people who deserted and people who were awol but certainly the incentive on the captain would be to keep the logs looking favourable.

I think...

that with sailing ships, which could not be parked like a car or started like one, Captains had a lot of leeway with regard to missing men.

There are so many stories of changing winds, violent storms earthquakes, riots, unfavourable political situations where captains upped and left harbour/port because they had to. No time to chase men on land.

Even if the captain was farsighted and did not give shore leave 48 hours before departure time there still would be officers, and men, running errands, fetching stores, chasing documents who might be left behind in a sudden departure.