Originally intended for another profession, his passion for the sea was not to be denied, and Sir William, after a fruitless struggle with his son's bent for the navy, at last gave way and suffered him to go to sea. His first station in the navy was that of a volunteer, then styled a reformade, in which he distinguished himself by his courage and application. This soon secured him the post of lieutenant, from which he rose to that of captain before he was thirty; promotion then thought very extraordinary. Admiral Herbert distinguished him early, by sending him, in the year 1689, as commodore, with a squadron to the coast of Ireland, where he concurred with Major-general Kirke in the relief of Londonderry, assisting in person in taking the island in the Lake, which opened a passage for the relief of the town. In the year 1690 he was appointed rear-admiral of the red; and, in that station, served in the fight off Beachy Head, where, notwithstanding the misfortune of our arms, indisputably the greatest we ever met with at sea, Admiral Rooke was allowed to have done his duty with much resolution. In the spring of 1691 he was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral of the blue, in which station he served in the famous battle of La Hogue, on May the 22nd, 1692, and contributed no small share to the victory. For this service, an account of which will be found in the story of "The Victory of La Hogue," he was knighted in the following year.
The direction of the fleet being now put in commission, Sir George Rooke was entrusted with the command of the squadron appointed to escort the Smyrna fleet, and the joint admirals received orders to accompany him as far to sea as they thought proper; after which his instructions were to take the best care of the fleet he could, and, in case of any misfortune, to retire into some of the Spanish ports and put himself under the protection of their guns.
The combined fleet had not proceeded far before the accompanying admirals signified their intention to return, and Sir George Rooke, who had good reason to believe that the French squadron had gone to Toulon with a view to intercepting the ships under his convoy, had to content himself with protesting against the withdrawal of the grand fleet so early in the voyage, and proceeding upon the journey alone. On June the 15th, being about sixty leagues short of Cape St. Vincent, he ordered the Lark to stretch ahead of his scouts into Lagos Bay; and on the following day, having confirmed advice of danger, from the close proximity of the enemy, proposed in a council of war to keep the wind or lie by during the night, with a view to discovering the enemy's strength in the morning. In this he was over-ruled, for it was urged that the wind being fresh northerly, it gave the fleet a fair opportunity of pushing for Cadiz; with which view he ran along the shore all night with a pressed sail, forcing several of the enemy's ships to cut from their anchors in Lagos Bay.
The next day, when off Villa Nova, it fell calm, and a little after daybreak ten sail of the enemy's men-of-war and several small ships were seen in the offing. The French no sooner discovered Sir George Rooke than they stood away with their boats ahead, setting fire to some, and sinking others of their small craft, to save them from falling into his hands. The crew of a fire-ship which fell in with our fleet in the night, being carried on board the flag ship and examined by the admiral, told him that the French squadron consisted of only fifteen ships of the line, notwithstanding there were three flags, and had with them forty-six merchantmen and store-ships, bound either for Toulon or to join M. d'Estrees. They said also that the squadron had been becalmed off the Cape, and that, having watered in the bay, were bound directly into the Straits, without any intention of following our fleet. This story, consistent with the hasty retreat of their men-of-war in the morning and their desertion and destruction of their small vessels, completely deceived the admiral and the rest of the officers; though afterwards it appeared that they made this retreat with a view to drawing the English squadron more completely into their power. About noon the sea breeze sprang up and the admiral bore away along shore upon the enemy, discovering their real strength as he came nearer to them, until at last he sighted about eighty sail.
About three in the afternoon the Dutch vice-admiral sent Sir George Rooke word that, in his judgment, the best course would be to avoid fighting. Sir George differed with him upon the point and had actually made his arrangements for engaging the enemy; but reflecting that he should take upon himself the whole blame of the consequences if he fought contrary to the Dutch admiral's advice, he brought to and then stood off with an easy sail, at the same time despatching the Sheerness with orders to the small ships that were on the coast to endeavour to get along shore in the night and save themselves in the Spanish ports; this, happily, many of them succeeded in doing.
Sir George Rooke's whole squadron consisted of no more than twenty-three ships of war; of these, thirteen only were English, eight Dutch, and two Hamburgers. The fleet of merchantmen under his convoy numbered four hundred sail of all nations, though the greater part of them were English ships. The fleet under M. Tourville consisted of one hundred and twenty sail, of which sixty-four were of the line, and eighteen three-deck ships; yet Sir George Rooke saved all his men-of-war and no less than sixty merchantmen, and was said by the Dutch gazettes to have gained more reputation by his escape than the French had by their victory.
Early in the year 1697 Sir George Rooke was appointed admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet, and put to sea towards the latter end of June. As the French avoided fighting Sir George found it impossible to do anything with them; but while cruising off the French coast he met with a large fleet of Swedish merchantmen, and having obliged them to bring to and submit to be searched, found just grounds for believing that most of their cargoes belonged to French merchants: upon which he sent them under the convoy of some frigates into Plymouth. This caused a great deal of excitement, the Swedish minister interposing, and some of our statesmen being inclined to disapprove the admiral's conduct.
Upon this Sir George insisted that the matter should be brought to trial before the court of admiralty, where, upon the clearest evidence, it was shown that these Swedish ships were freighted by French merchants, partly with French goods, but chiefly with Indian merchandise, which had been taken out of English and Dutch ships; and that the Swedes had no further concern therein than receiving two per cent. for lending their names, procuring passes, and taking other necessary precautions for screening the effects of the French merchants; so that the whole of this rich fleet was adjudged to be good prize, and the clamour that had been raised against Sir George Rooke was converted into general applause!
The following year he was elected member of parliament for Portsmouth, where, voting mostly with the Tories, the Whigs tried to ruin him in the king's favour; but, to the honour of King William be it said, that when pressed to remove Sir George Rooke from his seat at the Admiralty-board, he answered plainly "Sir George Rooke has served me faithfully at sea, and I will never displace him for acting as he thinks most for the service of his country in the House of Commons."
Upon the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, Sir George was constituted vice-admiral and lieutenant of the Admiralty of England, as also lieutenant of the fleets and seas of this kingdom; and, upon the declaration of war with France, it was resolved that Sir George Rooke should command the grand fleet sent against Cadiz, the Duke of Ormond having the command-in-chief of the land forces.