RN:
HMS Centurion stern view in 1913.
HMS
Hawke, launched in 1891, was the seventh British warship to be named
Hawke. She was an
Edgar-class protected cruiser.
In February 1913,
Hawke joined the training squadron based at
Queenstown, Ireland (now known as
Cobh), 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, together with the other
Edgars from Queenstown, formed the 10th Cruiser Squadron, operating on blockade duties between the
Shetland Islands and Norway.
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 Endymion.
After recovering her boat with the mail,
Hawke proceeded at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) 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
U-9 (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
Theseus, the squadron was ordered to retreat at high speed to the northwest, and no response to the order was received from
Hawke.
The
destroyer Swift 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)