After commissioning in 1893, Hawke served in the Mediterranean Fleet, the International Squadron during the Cretan Revolt (1897–1898), and various other duties, including transporting relief crews to naval stations.

Hawke was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 17 June 1889, one of nine Edgar-class cruisers ordered for the Royal Navy under the Naval Defence Act 1889, and launched on 11 March 1891.

[1][3] Hawke's machinery was built by Fairfields, with four double-ended cylindrical boilers feeding steam at 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) to two 3-cylinder triple expansion engines,[2] which drove two shafts.

[7] In February 1902 she received orders to prepare to convey relief crews to the Cape of Good Hope Station,[8] and she was commissioned for this duty on 1 April.

[11] She left South Africa ten days later,[12] stopping at Saint Helena, Ascension, Sierra Leone, Las Palmas and Madeira before she arrived at Plymouth on 16 June 1902.

[21] In November 1904, Hawke became Boy's Training Ship as part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron, serving in that role until August 1906, when she joined the torpedo school at Sheerness.

[24] In February 1913, Hawke joined the training squadron based at Queenstown, Ireland (Cobh since 1920), where she served along with most of the rest of the Edgar class.

In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, Hawke and the other Edgars from Queenstown, formed the 10th Cruiser Squadron, operating on blockade duties between the Shetland Islands and Norway.

[25][26][27] 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.

The destroyer Swift was dispatched from Scapa Flow to search for Hawke and found a raft carrying twenty-two men, while a boat with a further forty-nine survivors was rescued by a Norwegian steamer.