[5] The following year he went on half-pay and did not go to sea again until July 1739 when he was recalled to become commanding officer of HMS Portland on the North American Station and was sent to cruise in the Caribbean with orders to escort British merchant ships.

He did this successfully, although it meant his ship did not take part in the British attack on Porto Bello in November 1739 during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

[6] 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.

However, he was promoted to rear admiral on 15 July 1747[10] and appointed Second-in-Command of the Western Squadron, with his flag in the fourth-rate HMS Gloucester in August 1747.

He went on to replace Admiral Peter Warren as the Commander-in-Chief, English Channel in charge of the Western Squadron, with his flag in the third-rate HMS Devonshire, in October 1747.

[11] Hawke then put a great deal of effort into improving the performance of his crews and instilling in them a sense of pride and patriotism.

Under a previous commander, Lord Anson, it had successfully contained the French coast and in May 1747 won the First Battle of Cape Finisterre when it attacked a large convoy leaving harbour.

The consequence of this, along with Anson's earlier victory, was to give the British almost total control in the English Channel during the final months of the war.

In spite of their personal disagreements, Anson had a deep respect for Hawke as an admiral, and pushed unsuccessfully for him to be given a place on the Admiralty board.

[1] As it began to seem more likely that war would break out with France, Hawke was ordered to hoist his flag in the first-rate HMS St George and to reactivate the Western Squadron in Spring 1755.

[11] Hawke was sent to replace Admiral John Byng as commander in the Mediterranean, with orders to hoist his flag in the second-rate HMS Ramillies, in June 1756.

[11] Hawke blockaded Rochefort in 1757 and later in the year he was selected to command a naval escort that would land a large force on the coast of France.

After storming the offshore island of Île-d'Aix, the army commander Sir John Mordaunt hesitated before proceeding with the landing on the mainland.

[26] During a gale on 20 November 1759 Hawke took the risky decision to follow French warships into an area of shoals and rocky islands.

In an effort to further undermine the French, Pitt had conceived the idea of seizing the island of Belle Île, off the coast of Brittany and asked the navy to prepare for an expedition to take it.

An initial assault in April 1761 was repulsed with heavy loss but, reinforced, the British successfully captured the island in June.

[32] Although the capture of the island provided another victory for Pitt and lowered the morale of the French public by showing that the British could now occupy parts of Metropolitan France, Hawke's criticisms of its strategic usefulness were borne out.

When at a meeting in the Royal Geographical Society it was suggested that a civilian should lead the expedition, Hawke is supposed to have remarked that he would sooner have his right hand cut off than allow this to happen.

[45] Towards the end of his life he had his country house built in Sunbury-on-Thames[46] and lived alternately there and at a rented home in North Stoneham, Hampshire.

[48] His memorial, carved by John Francis Moore[49] and depicting the Battle of Quiberon Bay, is in St. Nicolas' Church, North Stoneham.

[50] In the Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island, Long John Silver claims that he used to serve in the Royal Navy and lost his leg under "the immortal Hawke".