On 25 October 1795 a law regarding maritime enlistment came into effect, this being considered the main basic text of the revolutionary period. Among those enlisted, there were sailors of all grades and professions who served in the naval forces or on trading ships; those who navigated or fished along the coasts or up the rivers. Each of the main ports of the Republic would thus have a maritime department. The sailors were classified in four categories: the first would include bachelors; the second, widowers without children; the third, married men but with no children; and the fourth was made up of fathers. Any sailor who was over 50 years old was duly exempted from conscription to the service of warships and arsenals of the Republic. A naval officers’ corps was set up, to include the following: 8 vice-admirals; 16 commodores; 50 heads of division; 100 captains, divided in 2 classes of 50 each; 180 frigate captains; 400 lieutenants, 600 sub-lieutenants. The title of admiral was temporary; it was assigned to general officers of the navy who were in charge of the naval armies and only during the period of the campaign.

In order to implement the law of the 24 October 1795, military ports were administered and divided into great ports: Brest, Toulon, Rochefort and the East; and into secondary ports: Dunkirk, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Nantes, Bordeaux, Bayonne and Marseilles; these were under the charge of a purser. The administration included administration and accounting; naval construction, under the charge of a construction engineer; the management of manoeuvres; and the management of the artillery. Another decree (14 May 1797) set provisions for the organisation of crews in the navy.

On 14 December 1800 another decree was published regarding the recruitment of marines. It stipulated that these would continue to be enlisted on a voluntary basis, in conformity to the provisions laid in the law about enlistment of 5 September 1798. In practice the quality of the enlisted seamen was not that good. Commodore Jurien de la Graviere wrote in his Memoires: The crews were made up gradually; the seamen were enlisted at the maritime enlistment headquarters and gradually went on board ship. They wore different clothes and were in complete ignorance of the most basic orders and customs of a warship. Most of them till then had only experienced coastal shipping or coastal fishing. They had never navigated by night or on a square-sailed vessel, and were in awe of their new surroundings. They also seemed unsure, with a fearful curiosity, of all this military paraphernalia which they did not know how to use and would not even dare touch it. However these men had the makings of good seamen. Although these men were less accustomed to life at sea than their English counterparts, nevertheless they were perhaps better than these with regard to manoeuvres. When the French lost their supremacy at sea, the British fleets became less active and did not prepare themselves for combat with the same ardour.

Subsequently in later years, Admiral Ganteaume wrote that this system of enlistment was totally obsolete. He proposed that each vessel should have a permanent fund for crews. As a result several decrees were published in 1808, leading to the the "Bataillons de la marine imperial" and subsequently "Equipages de haut-bord". In 1812 the system was modified again.

As already mentioned above, the sailors originally did not have a proper uniform and wore their own clothing. In 1794, provision was made for each matelot to be given shirts (2 white and 4 blue), overalls, a round hat, stockings, shoes, jackets, waistcoats, a bonnet and handkerchiefs. There was a first attempt to provide sailors with uniforms, consisting mainly of a dark blue paletot (short jacket) with a scarlet collar, cuff flap and armband. As from July 1803, all sailors were assigned uniforms until naval uniform regulations were brought into effect in 1804. Our matelot is also wearing a short 1780 hanger sword. Sailors of the period are also noted for having their hair long and sporting two earrings.