IN MAY 1759 Hawke was appointed to command Britain's principal fleet, despite his resignation of command in 1758. When, to the considerable alarm of the governing classes and opinion in the country, the government learnt early in 1759 that the French intended to invade the British Isles, there was little surprise that Hawke was restored to the chief command. The first necessity was to have a strong Western Squadron under an expert commander cruising in strength off the main French naval base at Brest.

At this point the politico-strategic situation for Britain was as follows. Since 1757, the governing coalition in Britain had been led in the Commons by William Pitt ‘the Elder’ (1708–78). In the war cabinet Pitt worked in tandem with the Duke of Newcastle who, as First Lord of the Treasury, kept the House of Commons loyal to the government by his manipulation of patronage and he controlled the financing of the war. Pitt, for his part, although basically interested in expanding British colonial and commercial power, had by 1757 accepted that the survival of hard-pressed Frederick of Prussia was essential from a British point of view. Britain gave Frederick enough military and financial support to resist the French in western Germany. This indirectly helped Frederick also to ward off the Austrian and Russian armies closing on him from the south and east. British naval predominance, stemming from a strengthened Western Squadron cruising in the western approaches to the English Channel, had led in 1758 to the capture of Louisbourg, the gateway to Canada. Colonies and trade were the main concern of British political opinion. The war had already begun to swing in Britain’s favour.