In October 1914, the 10th Cruiser Squadron was deployed further south in the North Sea as part of efforts to stop German warships from attacking a troop convoy from Canada. On 15 October, the squadron was on patrol off Aberdeen, deployed in line abreast at intervals of about 10 miles. "Hawke" stopped at 9:30 am to pick up mail from sister ship . After recovering her boat with the mail, "Hawke" proceeded at without zig-zagging to regain her station, and was out of sight of the rest of the Squadron when at 10:30 a single torpedo from the German submarine (which had sunk three British cruisers on 22 September), struck "Hawke", which quickly capsized. The remainder of the squadron only realised anything was amiss, when, after a further, unsuccessful attack on , the squadron was ordered to retreat at high speed to the northwest, and no response to the order was received from "Hawke". The destroyer was dispatched from Scapa Flow to search for "Hawke" and found a raft carrying one officer and twenty-one men, while a boat with a further forty-nine survivors was rescued by a Norwegian steamer. 524 officers and men died, including the ship's captain, Hugh P. E. T. Williams, with only 70 survivors (one man died of his wounds on 16 October).