and giving him a chance to show what was in him.  It may readily be believed that Hawke’s marked professional capacity speedily justified the advantage thus obtained, and he seems to have owed his promotion to post-captain to a superior officer when serving abroad; though it is never possible to affirm that even such apparent official recognition was not due either to an intimation from home, or to the give and take of those who recognized Bismarck’s motto, “Do ut des.”

However this may have been, the service did not suffer by the favors extended to Hawke.  Nor was his promotion unduly rapid, to the injury of professional character, as often happened when rank was prematurely reached.  It was not till March 20, 1734, that he was “made post,” as the expression went, by Sir Chaloner Ogle into the frigate Flamborough, on the West India Station.  Being then twenty-nine years old, in the prime of life for naval efficiency, he had reached the position in which a fair opportunity for all the honors of the profession lay open to him, provided he could secure occupation until he was proved to be indispensable.  Here also his uncle’s influence stood good.  Although the party with which the experienced politician was identified had gone out of power with Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742, his position on the Board dealing with Colonial affairs left him not without friends.  “My colleague, Mr. Cavendish,” he writes, “has already laid in his claim for another ship for you.  But after so long a voyage” (he had been away over three years) “I think you should be allowed a little time to spend with your friends on shore.  It is some consolation, however, that I have some friends on the new Board of Admiralty.”  “There has been a clean sweep,” he says again, “but I hope I may have some friends amongst the new Lords that will upon my account afford you their protection.”

This was in the beginning of 1743, when Hawke had just returned from a protracted cruise on the West India and North American stations, where by far the greater part of his early service was passed.  He never again returned there, and very shortly after his uncle’s letter, just quoted, he was appointed to the Berwick, a ship-of-the-line of seventy guns.  In command of her he sailed in September, 1743, for the Mediterranean; and a few months after, by his decided and seamanlike course in Mathews’s action, he established his professional reputation and fortunes, the firm foundations of which had been laid during the previous years of arduous but inconspicuous service.  Two years later, in 1746, Martin Bladen died, and with him political influence, in the ordinary acceptation, departed from Hawke.  Thenceforth professional merit, forced upon men’s recognition, stood him in stead.