HAWKE, EDWARD HAWKE, BARON (I British admiral, son of a barrister, entered the navy on Feb. 20, 1720, and served the time required to qualify him to hold a lieu tenant's commission on the North American and West Indian stations. When war began with Spain in 1739, he served as cap tain of the "Portland" (5o) in the West Indies. His ship was old and rotten. She nearly drowned her captain and crew, and was broken up after she was paid off in 1742. In the following year Hawke was appointed to the "Berwick" (7o), and fought his ship in the ill-managed battle of Toulon on Jan. 1 i, 1744. In July he attained flag rank, and was named second in command of the Channel fleet. He was sent in command of the fourteen ships detached to intercept a French convoy on its way to the West Indies. On Oct. 14, 1747 he fell in with it in the Bay of Biscay, attacked at once, and captured six of the eight French ships.
In 1747 Hawke had been elected M.P. for Portsmouth, which he continued to represent for thirty years, though he can seldom have been in his place, and it does not appear that he often spoke. In the interval between the war of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, Hawke was almost always on active service. From 1748 till 1752 he was in command at home, and he rehoisted his flag in 1755 as admiral in command of the Western Squadron. In June 1756 the news of John Byng's retreat from Minorca reached England. Hawke was at once sent out to relieve him in the Mediterranean command, and to send him home for trial. Minorca had fallen, from want of resources rather than the attacks of the French, before he could do anything for the assistance of the gar rison of Fort St. Philip. He returned to England in January 1757, and next month was promoted full admiral.
When Pitt's great ministry was formed in June 1757, Hawke was not included in the Board of Admiralty, but he was continued in command of important forces in the Channel. In the late summer of 1757 he commanded the abortive expedition against Rochefort. During the end of 1757 and the beginning of 1758 he continued cruising in the Channel in search of the French naval forces. In May of that year he was ordered to detach a squadron under the command of Howe to carry out further combined operations. He retired in June for a time on the ground of health, but happily he was able to hoist his flag in May 1759, the "wonderful year" of Garrick's song.
France was then collecting an army for the invasion of England in the Morbihan in Brittany; its transport was to be covered by a fleet to be made up by uniting the squadron at Brest with the ships at Toulon. The proposed combination of the French fleet was de feated by the annihilation of the Toulon squadron on the coast of Portugal by Boscawen in May, but the Brest fleet was still un touched and the troops were still at Morbihan. It was the duty of Hawke to prevent attack from this quarter. The way in which he discharged his task marks an epoch in the history of the British navy. Until his time, or very nearly so, it was still believed that there was rashness in keeping great ships out after September. Hawke maintained his blockade of Brest till far into November. By the care he took to obtain fresh food, and the energy he showed in pressing the Admiralty for stores, he kept his men healthy. Early in November severe gales forced him off the French coast, and he anchored in Torbay. His brief absence allowed the French admiral, M. de Conflans, time to put to sea, and to steer for the Morbihan. Hawke, who had left Torbay on Nov. 13, learnt of the departure of the French at sea on the 27th from a look-out ship, and followed the French admiral to the Morbihan. He sighted the French about 4o m. to the west of Belleisle on the morning of Nov. 20. The British fleet was of twenty-one sail, the French of twenty. There was also a small squadron of British ships engaged in watching the Morbihan as an inshore squadron, which was in danger of -being cut off. After mak ing a motion to give battle, Conflans changed his mind and gave the signal to his fleet to steer for the anchorage at Quiberon, thinking that the British admiral would not dare to follow him, for the coast is one of the most dangerous in the world, and the wind was rising to a storm. Hawke, however, caught up the rear of the French fleet in the afternoon. It was dark before the action began in Quiberon Bay. Five ships only were taken or destroyed, but others ran ashore, and the French navy as a whole lost all con fidence. Two British vessels were lost, but the price was little to pay for such a victory. No more fighting remained to be done. The fleet in Quiberon Bay suffered from want of food, and its dis tress is recorded in the lines:— "Ere Hawke did bang Mounseer Conflang You sent us beef and beer; Now Mounseer's beat, We've nought to eat, Since you have nought to fear." Hawke returned to England in Jan. 176o and had no further service at sea. Sixteen years later (1776) he received a peerage as Baron Hawke of Towton. From 1766 to 1771 he was first lord of the Admiralty. His administration was much criticized. He was no favourite with Chatham's partizans. It is very credible that, hav ing spent all his life at sea, his faculty did not show in the un congenial life of the shore. As an admiral at sea and on his own element Hawke had no superior. On his death on the 27th of October 1 781 his title passed to his son, Martin Bladen ' 1805), and it is still held by his descendants. The 7th Baron (186o-1938) was the well-known cricketer who for so many years captained the Yorkshire eleven.
There is a portrait of Hawke in the Painted Hall at Greenwich. His Life by Montagu Burrows (5883) superseded all earlier authori ties; it is supplemented in a few early particulars by Sir J. K. Laugh ton's article in the Dict. Nat. Biog. (1891).