Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/205

H that, while he broke up fourteen ships of the line during his term of office, he built or laid down twenty-eight (, p. 455). That in 1778 the English navy was found to be below the necessary strength cannot be attributed to Hawke's mismanagement; he retired from office seven years before, and on 25 June 1779 it was stated without contradiction in the House of Lords that ‘Hawke left 139 sail of the line behind him, 81 of which were at that time ready for sea’ (cf. Parl. Hist. xx. 976).

After his retirement from the admiralty in January 1771 Hawke resided mostly at Sunbury-on-Thames. On 20 May 1776 he was created a peer by the title of Baron Hawke of Towton; but he took little or no part in public affairs. His health was much broken during his later years, and he was much affected by the tragical death of Chaloner, his youngest son, on 17 Sept. 1777 (, Peerage, 1779, viii. 334;, Letters, ed. Cunningham, vi. 483, 490). His second son, Edward, a lieutenant-colonel in the army, had also died on 2 April 1773. With the exception of his signing, in December 1778, the protest of the admirals against the court-martial ordered on Keppel [see ], his name scarcely came before the public, though the scanty remains of his private correspondence show the interest he continued to take in naval matters [see ]. In one of the latest of his letters, 26 Aug. 1780, he wrote to Geary on his return from his summer cruise: ‘I wish the Admiralty would see what was done in former times; it would make them act with more propriety both for the good of officers and men. … For God's sake, if you should be so lucky as to get sight of the enemy, get as close to them as possible. Do not let them shuffle with you by engaging at a distance, but get within musket-shot if you can; that will be the way to gain great honour, and will be the means to make the action decisive.’ He died at Sunbury on 17 Oct. 1781. ‘Lord Hawke is dead,’ wrote Walpole to Mann on the 18th, ‘and does not seem to have bequeathed his mantle to anybody.’ He was buried by the side of his wife in the church of North Stoneham in Hampshire, where a monumental inscription records, without exaggeration, that ‘wherever he sailed victory attended him.’ Besides a daughter, Catherine, who is described as ‘the comfort of her father's life in his declining years,’ he left one son, Martin Bladen, who succeeded to the title as second baron.

Hawke's actions have very commonly been spoken of as a series of happy chances, recognised as such by the government which dealt out its rewards with a sparing hand. A close study of his career proves that his successes were due rather to care and foresight. Alike as captain and admiral his anxiety for the health and comfort of his men was incessant. Far in advance of his age, he arrived, however imperfectly, at a solution of the difficult problem of how to keep a ship's company healthy; and his discipline appears to have been strict, but kindly. His reproof of impiety, his care for the happiness of his men, his manly decision and dignified deportment worked a rapid though silent reformation through the whole fleet (Gent. Mag. 1832, pt. i. p. 611). Whether he was a consummate tactician must be, to some extent, matter of opinion. Unlike Nelson, he left no theoretical exposition of his views; his teaching was purely practical, but his two great actions were fought—in defiance of the ‘Fighting Instructions’—on the soundest tactical principles.

A full-length portrait of Hawke, by Francis Cotes, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, to which it was presented by the third Lord Hawke. Another similar picture, the property of Lord Hawke, is at Womersley Park, near Pontefract. 

HAWKER, EDWARD (1782–1860), admiral, son of Captain James Hawker [q. v.], had his name placed by Prince William Henry on the books of the Pegasus in 1786, but he first went to sea in 1793 on board the Pegasus frigate, and afterwards in the Swiftsure, with his brother-in-law, Captain Charles Boyles. In July 1796 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Raisonnable, also with Captain Boyles; in 1799–1800 he was in the Spitfire sloop with his brother-in-law, Commander (afterwards Sir Michael) Seymour (1768–1834) [q. v.], and from 1801 to 1803 in the Thames frigate with Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis [q. v.], at Gibraltar and on the coast of Egypt. He afterwards commanded the Swift cutter in the West Indies, and in August 1803 was promoted to the command of the Port Mahon brig. In June 1804 he was advanced to post rank, and in the following