Author Description

Although less well known than Nelson, Hood, or Rodney, Hawke is one of the founding fathers of the Royal Navy's 'habit of victory'. His moral courage was manifest early, when in 1744 as a junior captain he took his ship out of the line at the battle of Toulon to engage the enemy more closely. This revisionist biography reinstates him as one of the most significant figures in the history of the Navy. As an admiral Hawke did not lose this innovative spirit. It was during the Seven Years War that he really made his mark, when he proved that the year-round close blockade of Brest was feasible, which became the cornerstone of British naval policy right down to 1815. With the French main fleet bottled up, invasion of the British Isles was impossible, and even if it did escape during bad weather, pursuit was always close astern. This was dramatically demonstrated on a stormy November day in 1759 when Hawke's fleet chased a startled French squadron into the poorly charted shallows of Quiberon Bay. In the course of a wild and chaotic night the British won a victory so spectacular that it was a favourite subject for marine painters for nearly a century. Unlike Nelson, Hawke rose to the pinnacle of his profession, eventually becoming First Lord of the Admiralty. Like many peacetime administrators, struggling against budget limitations, Hawke was later criticised for the state of the fleet when mobilisation called. But this book shows that his work was very creditable, and reinforced his position as the Navy's foremost figure.