Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/203

H cawen was watching the Toulon squadron, which he eventually destroyed in the Straits of Gibraltar and Lagos Bay on 18 and 19 Aug. [see ]. Nearer home Rodney destroyed the flat-bottomed boats at Havre in July [see ]; it was for Hawke to keep watch over the fleet in Brest, a service which he carried out with a persistence till then unknown, thereby practically initiating a revolution in naval strategy. The technical details of the blockade, as well as the measures which he took for the victualling of the fleet and for the frequent refreshing of the men by short visits to Plymouth, two or three ships at a time, deserve close study. ‘The relief of the squadron,’ he wrote on 4 Aug., ‘depends more on the refreshment of the ships' companies than on cleaning the ships. … As to myself, it is a matter of indifference whether I fight the enemy, if they should come out, with an equal number, one ship more or less. … What I see I believe, and regulate my conduct accordingly’ (cf., Nelson Despatches, vi. 192). He held Brest a sealed port from May to November. At times, indeed, he was compelled by a strong westerly gale to take refuge in Torbay or the Sound; but as soon as the weather moderated he was again on his post, sometimes at anchor under Point St. Mathieu, at others standing out to seaward, but with a chain of vessels stretching into the very entrance of the Goulet. Never before had a fleet been able to keep the sea for such a time, nor did any fleet again do so for the next forty years. Walpole has absurdly described Hawke as a man of steady courage, ‘but really weak, and childishly abandoned to the guidance of a Scotch secretary’ (Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ii. 240). As a matter of fact, many of his letters are in his own handwriting; and his courage on the day of battle was not more conspicuous than his freedom from all fear of responsibility, his carelessness about making things smooth at the admiralty, or the pains he took in maintaining the well-being of his fleet. He insisted on due supplies of fresh beef and vegetables; he condemned bad beer, summarily dismissed incompetent medical officers, and peremptorily refused to discuss with the navy board his right to do so.

November set in with very bad weather. After struggling against a tremendous westerly gale for three days the fleet put into Torbay on the 9th, went out on the 12th, but on the 13th was again driven in. The Ramillies, which had carried Hawke's flag through the summer and autumn, was in need of a thorough refit. Hawke shifted his flag to the Royal George, and put to sea on the 14th. On the 17th he had news that the French fleet was at sea. He was then off Ushant, and concluded that it must have gone round to embark the troops in Morbihan. The wind, blowing hard at S.S.E., drove him to the westward; it was still adverse through the 18th and 19th. On the morning of the 20th, being then some forty miles to the west of Belle Isle, the Maidstone frigate made the signal for seeing a fleet. No time was lost in the pedantic evolutions favoured by the ‘Fighting Instructions.’ The enemy was making off. Hawke made the signal ‘for the seven ships nearest them to chase, and draw into a line of battle ahead of the Royal George, and endeavour to stop them till the rest of the squadron should come up, who were also to form as they chased.’ Happily the French admiral, Marshal de Conflans, had been tempted out of his course in chase of the frigate squadron which, under Captain Duff, had for months past been keeping watch on the Morbihan coast. He had not time to recover his lost ground and reach the sheltering rocks and shoals of Quiberon Bay before the headmost ships of Hawke's irregularly formed line were on him. ‘All the day (in Hawke's own words) we had very fresh gales at N.W. and W.N.W. with heavy squalls. Monsieur Conflans kept going off under such sail as all his squadron could carry and at the same time keep together, while we crowded after him with every sail our ships could bear. At half-past 2 P.M., the fire beginning ahead, I made the signal for engaging. We were then to the southward of Belle Isle; and the French admiral headmost soon after led round the Cardinals, while his rear was in action. About 4 o'clock the Formidable struck, and a little after the Thésée and Superbe were sunk. About 5 the Héros struck and came to an anchor, but it blowing hard, no boat could be sent on board her. Night was now come, and being on a part of the coast among islands and shoals, of which we were totally ignorant, without a pilot, as was the greatest part of the squadron, and blowing hard on a lee shore, I made the signal to anchor.’

During the night, and the early morning of the 21st, two of the English ships, Resolution and Essex, struck on the Four, and were irrecoverably lost, though most of their men were saved. The French flagship, Soleil Royal, ran ashore near Croisic and was burnt; so also the Héros, which, after striking, was endeavouring to escape. Besides these five ships, taken or destroyed, seven, throwing overboard their guns and stores, ran up the Vilaine, where four of them broke their backs. The other nine escaped to the