page_title: Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke
section_title: Battle of Toulon
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke / Early life / Battle of Toulon
caption_attribution_description: Español: Combate entre navío Real Felipe y el Namur cuando se le lanzó el brulote Anne Galley para ser incendiado al Real Felipe. La nave insignia española lo destruyó con un certero cañonazo. (Museo Naval de Madrid).Deutsch: Seeschlacht bei Tolón zwischen Real Felipe und el Namur (?) (Museo Naval de Madrid).
context_page_description: Admiral of the Fleet Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, KB, PC, of Scarthingwell Hall in the parish of Towton, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, was a Royal Navy officer. As captain of the third-rate HMS Berwick, he took part in the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He also captured six ships of a French squadron in the Bay of Biscay in the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747.
  Hawke went on to achieve a victory over a French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759 during the Seven Years' War, preventing a French invasion of Britain. He developed the concept of a Western Squadron, keeping an almost continuous blockade of the French coast throughout the war.
  Hawke also sat in the House of Commons from 1747 to 1776 and served as First Lord of the Admiralty for five years between 1766 and 1771. In this post, he was successful in bringing the navy's spending under control and also oversaw the mobilisation of the navy during the Falklands Crisis in 1770.
context_section_description: Hawke became commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Berwick in June 1743: he did not see action until the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. The fight at Toulon was extremely confused, although Hawke had emerged from it with a degree of credit. While not a defeat for the British, they had failed to take an opportunity to comprehensively defeat the Franco-Spanish fleet when a number of British ships had not engaged the enemy, leading to a mass court martial. Hawke's ship managed to capture the only prize of the battle, the Spanish ship Poder, although it was subsequently destroyed by the French. He was then given command of the second-rate HMS Neptune in August 1745.
caption: The Battle of Toulon (1744), where Hawke first saw action.
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