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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HAN-HEG |
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HAWKE, EDWARD HAWKE, BARON (1705-1781) , British admiral, was the only son of Edward Hawke, a barrister. On his mother's side he was the nephew of Colonel Martin Bladen (168o-1746), a politician of some note, and was connected with the family of Fairfax. Edward Hawke entered the navy on the 20th of February 1720 and served the time required to qualify him to hold a lieutenant's commission on the North American and West Indian stations. Though he passed his examination on the 2nd of June 1725, he was not appointed to a ship to act in that rank till 1729, when he was named third lieutenant of the " Portland " in the Channel. The continuance of peace allowed him no opportunities of distinction, but he was fortunate in obtaining promotion as commander
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He had no further chance of making his energy and ability known out of the ranks of his own profession, where they were fully realized, till 1747. In July of that year he attained flag rank, and was named second in command of the Channel fleet. Owing to the ill health of his superior he was sent in command of the fourteen ships detached to intercept a French convoy on its way to the West Indies. On the 14th of October 1747 he fell in with it in the Bay of Biscay. The French force, under M. Desherbiers de l'f tenduere, consisted of nine ships, which were, how-ever, on the average larger than Hawke's. He attacked at once. The French admiral sent one of his liners to escort the merchant ships on their way to the West Indies, and with the other eight fought a very gallant action with the British squadron. Six of the eight French ships were taken. The French admiral did for a time succeed in saving the trading vessels under his charge, but most of them fell into the hands of the British cruisers in the West Indies. Hawke was made a knight of the Bath for this timely piece of service, a reward which cannot be said to have been lavish. 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. A seat in parliament was always valuable to a naval officer at that time, since it enabled him to be useful to ministers, and increased his chances of obtaining employment. Hawke had married a lady of fortune in Yorkshire, Catherine Brook, in 1737, and was able to meet the expenses entailed by a seat in parliament, which were considerable at a time when votes were openly paid for by money down. In the interval between the war of European Sparrow -Hawk (Male and Female).itself, and gliding upon it when it appears to be unwary with a rapid swoop, clutching it in their talons, and bearing it away to eat it in some convenient spot. Systematic ornithologists differ as to the groups into which the numerous forms known as hawks should be divided. There is at the outset a difference of opinion as to the scientific name which the largest and best known of these groups should bearsome authors terming it Nisus, and others, who seem to have the most justice on their side, Accipiter. In Europe there are two speciesfirst, A. nisus, the common sparrow -hawk, which has a wide distribution from Ireland to Japan, extending also to northern India, Egypt and Algeria, and secondly, A. brevipes (by some placed in the group Iicranisus and by others called an .1 slur), which only appears in the south-east and the adjoining parts of Asia Minor and Persia. In North America the place of the former is taken by two very distinct species, a small one, A. fun-us, usually known in Canada and the United States as the sharp
In one form, Nisoides, which on that account has been generically separated, they are said to be perfectly straight. 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. Although war was not declared for some time, England and France were on very hostile terms, and conflicts between the officers of the two powers in America had already taken place. Neither government was scrupulous in abstaining from the use of force while peace was still nominally unbroken. Hawke was sent to sea to intercept a French squadron which ad been cruising near Gibraltar, but a restriction was put on the limits within which he might cruise, and he failed to meet the French. The fleet was much weakened by ill-health. In June 1756 the news of John Byng's retreat from Minorca reached England and aroused the utmost indignation. Hawke was at once sent out to relieve him in the Mediterranean command, and to send him home for trial. He sailed in the Antelope," carrying, as the wits of the day put it, "a cargo of courage " to supply deficiencies in that respect among the officers then in the Mediterranean. Minorca had fallen, from want of resources rather than the attacks of the French, before he could do anything for the assistance of the garrison of Fort St Philip. In winter he was recalled to England, and he reached home on the 14th of January 1757. On the 24th of February following he was promoted full admiral. It is said, but on no very good authority, that he was not on good terms with Pitt (afterwards earl
France was then elaborating a scheme of invasion which bears much resemblance to the plan afterwards formed by Napoleon. An army of invasion was collected at the Morbihan in Brittany, and the intention was to transport it under the protection of a powerful fleet which was to be made up by uniting the squadron at Brest with the ships at Toulon. The plan, like Napoleon's, had slight chance of success, since the naval part of the invading force must necessarily be brought together from distant points at the risk
BARON decisively was great, and the country looked on at the develop ment of the naval campaign with nervous attention. The proposed combination of the French fleet was defeated by the annihilation of the Toulon squadron on the coast of Portugal by Boscawen in May, but the Brest fleet was still untouched and the troops were still at Morbihan. It was the duty of Hawke to prevent attack from this quarter. The manner in which he discharged his task marks an epoch in the history of the navy. Until his time, or very nearly so, it was still believed that there was rashness in keeping the great ships out after September. Hawke maintained his blockade of Brest till far into November. Long cruises had always entailed much bad health on the crews, but by the care he took to obtain fresh food, and the energy he showed in pressing the Admiralty for stores, he was able to keep his men healthy. Early in November a series of severe gales forced him off the French coast, and he was compelled to anchor in Torbay. His absence was brief, but it allowed the French admiral, M. de Conflans (169o?-1777), time to put to sea, and to steer for the Morbihan. Hawke, who had left Torbay on the 13th of November, learnt of the departure of the French at sea on the 17th from a look-out ship, and as the French admiral could have done nothing but steer for the Morbihan, he followed him thither. The news that M. de Conflans had got to sea spread a panic through the country, and for some days Hawke was the object of abuse of the most irrational kind. There was in fact no danger, for behind Hawke's fleet there were ample reserves in the straits of Dover, and in the North Sea. Following his enemy as fast as the bad weather, a mixture of calms and head winds would allow, the admiral sighted the French about 40 M. to the west of Belleisle on the morning of the loth of November. 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. M. de Conflans had a sufficient force to fight in the open sea without rashness, but after making a motion to give battle, he changed his mind and gave the signal to his fleet to steer for the anchorage at Quiberon. He did not believe that the British admiral would dare to follow him, for the coast is one of the most dangerous in the world, and the wind was blowing hard from the west and rising to a storm. Hawke, however, pursued without hesitation, though it was well on in the afternoon before he caught up the rear of the French fleet, and dark by the time the two fleets were in the bay. The action, which was more a test of seamanship than of gunnery, or capacity to manoeuvre in order, ended in the destruction of the French. Five ships only were taken or destroyed, but others ran ashore, and the French navy as a whole lost all confidence. 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 distress is recorded in the lines: " Ere Hawke did bang
Mounseer Corfflang 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 January 1760 and had no further service at sea. He was not made a peer till the loth of May 1776, and then only as Baron Hawke of Towton. From 1776 to 1771 he was first lord of the Admiralty. His administration was much criticized, perhaps more from party spirit than because of its real defects. Whatever his relations with Lord Chatham may have been he was no favourite with Chatham's partizans. It is very credible that, having spent all his life at sea, his faculty did not show in the uncongenial life of the shore. As an admiral at sea and on his own element Hawke has had no superior. It is true that he was not put to the test of having to meet opponents of equal strength and efficiency, but then neither has any other British admiral since the Dutch wars of the 17th century. On his death on the 17th of October 1781 his title passed to his son, Martin Bladen (1744-1805), and it is still held by his descendants, the 7th Baron (b. 186o) being best known as a great Yorkshire cricketer. There is a portrait of Hawke in the Painted Hall
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