had generated a suction that had drawn Hawke off course, causing the Olympic’s voyage to be delayed. The White Star Line lost on appeal. Sinking 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 and 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 16 km (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). Citations References External links Encyclopedia Titanica: HMS Hawke HMS Hawke at Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk Edgar-class cruisers Ships built in Chatham Victorian-era cruisers of the United Kingdom World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea 1891 ships Maritime incidents in October 1914 Maritime incidents in 1911