ake the place
of a disabled vessel.

HAWKE

1705-1781

The first great name in British naval annals belonging distinctively to
the eighteenth century rather than to the seventeenth, is that of Edward
Hawke. He was born in 1705, of a family of no marked social distinction,
his father being a barrister, and his grandfather a London merchant. His
mother's maiden name was Bladen. One of her brothers held an important
civil office as Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, and was for many
years a member of Parliament. Under the conditions which prevailed then,
and for some generations longer, the influence attaching to such
positions enabled the holder to advance substantially the professional
interests of a naval officer. Promotion in rank, and occupation both in
peace and war, were largely a matter of favor. Martin Bladen naturally
helped his nephew in this way, a service especially valuable in the
earlier part of a career, lifting a man out of a host of competitors and
giving him a chance to show what was in him. It may readily be believed
that Hawke's marked professional capacity speedily justified the
advantage thus obtained, and he seems to have owed his promotion to
post-captain to a superior officer when serving abroad; though it is
never possible to affirm that even such apparent official recognition
was not due either to an intimation from home, or to the give and take
of those who recognized Bismarck's motto, "Do ut des."

However this may have been, the service did not suffer by the favors
extended to Hawke. Nor was his promotion unduly rapid, to the injury of
professional character, as often happened when rank was prematurely
reached. It was not till March 20, 1734, that he was "made post," as the
expression went, by Sir Chaloner Ogle into the frigate _Flamborough_, on
the West India Station. Being then twenty-nine years old, in the prime
of life for naval efficiency, he had reached the position in which a
fair opportunity for all the honors of the profession lay open to him,
provided he could secure occupation until he was proved to be
indispensable. Here also his uncle's influence stood good. Although the
party with which the experienced politician was identified had gone out
of power with Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742, his position on the Board
dealing with Colonial affairs left him not without friends. "My
colleague, Mr. Cavendish," he writes, "has already laid in his claim for
another ship for yo