Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/200

H 1747 he was appointed to the Mars, but before she was ready for sea he was advanced to flag rank on 15 July. The very large promotion then made was specially extended in order to include Boscawen [see ], and for this purpose several most respectable officers were retired. Hawke's name was still little known to the incompetent administration then at the admiralty, and after the death of his uncle Bladen, in 1746, he had no political interest. It was determined to pass him over. The king, however, who had taken a strong interest in the discussions concerning the battle of Toulon, is said to have declared that ‘he would not have Hawke “yellowed;”’ he was accordingly promoted to be rear-admiral of the white. A week later he hoisted his flag on board the Gloucester, and on 3 Aug. was appointed second in command of the fleet in the Channel under Vice-admiral Sir Peter Warren.

Warren was in indifferent health, and proposed that the squadron should go out under the command of Hawke, hoping that by the time it returned his health would be re-established. Anson felt very uneasy about sending the fleet to sea ‘under so young an officer,’ and with great reluctance yielded to the proposal. During the next fortnight Warren's health got worse, and on 5 Sept. he was obliged to resign the command. On the 8th orders were sent to Hawke to take the independent command and cruise between Ushant and Cape Finisterre. These orders he did not receive for nearly a month; but his original instructions had taught him that the first object of his cruise was to intercept a French convoy expected to sail from Rochelle. Spanish galeons too were spoken of as likely to be on the way to Cadiz, and the temptation to send part of his force to look for them must have been great. He decided, however, that treasure-hunting might wait, that to crush the enemy in arms was his first duty, and he kept his ships together. On 12 Oct. he was broad off Rochelle, nearly midway between Ushant and Finisterre, in a ‘situation,’ he wrote, ‘very well calculated for intercepting both the outward and homeward bound trade of the enemy.’ Two days later his efforts were rewarded by his outlying vessels signalling the French fleet in sight. He had then with him fourteen ships of the line, mostly of 60 guns, but two were of 70 and two of only 50. His own flagship, the Devonshire, was of 66 guns, though these were heavier than usual. She had been built as an 80-gun ship, but had proved so crank that she had been cut down to a two-decker. The enemy when sighted was reported to have twelve large ships; three of them were, however, merchantmen; there were really only nine ships of war. Of these one was of 50 guns, and another of 60; the rest were larger, including three of 74 guns and one of 80. The difference of force was thus nothing like what is shown by the mere numbers of the ships; still the French admiral, M. de l'Étenduère, conceived that the odds against him were too great, and Hawke, seeing that he was intent only on favouring the escape of the convoy, ‘made the signal for the whole squadron to chase.’ The result was decisive; as the English ships came up with the rear of the enemy they engaged; and so, successively creeping on towards the van, took the whole line except the two leading ships, the one of 80 and the other of 74 guns, which, owing chiefly, it was thought, to a blunder of Captain Fox of the Kent, made good their escape. The Content, the 60-gun ship, was with the convoy, which also got away, though Hawke, by promptly sending out the news to the West Indies, insured the capture of the greater part of it. The action, by far the most important and most brilliant of the war, had the misfortune of coming after Anson's of 3 May; and the acknowledgments of the admiralty, of which Anson was a member, were almost ungracious. For a victory over an enemy of barely one-third of his strength Anson had been made a peer. Hawke, for a victory as decisive over a nearly equal force, was merely made a knight of the Bath, the reward which had been given to Sir Peter Warren, Anson's second in command.

On the return of the fleet with the prizes to Portsmouth, Warren resumed the command, and during the rest of the war Hawke continued with him, for the most part cruising in the Bay of Biscay. On 12 May 1748 he was advanced to be vice-admiral of the blue. He had already, in December 1747, been elected member of parliament for Portsmouth by the interest of the Duke of Bedford, then first lord of the admiralty. For nearly thirty years Hawke continued to represent Portsmouth, but he rarely spoke in the house. There is not even any record of his having taken part in the debates of 1749 on the new articles of war and the reform of naval discipline. On 26 July 1748 he succeeded Warren in command of the home fleet, a charge which he held continuously during the next four years, for the most part at Portsmouth, but during 1750 in the Thames and Medway. Of this service the notices are scanty. Probably Hawke's chief work was in assisting or in advising Anson in the important changes which he introduced. As commander-in-chief at Portsmouth he was president of the remarkable courts-martial on Rear-admiral