Hovenden Walker

Rear-Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker (1656 or 1666 – 1725 or 1728) was a British naval officer noted for, during Queen Anne's War, having led an abortive 1711 expedition against Quebec City, then the capital of New France.

Early career Walker entered Trinity College Dublin in 1678 but did not take a degree and subsequently joined the Royal Navy. He probably visited North America in 1686, reaching Boston aboard the frigate HMS Dartmouth.

Walker was promoted to captain about 1692 and saw action near the Lizard while in command of the fourth-rate HMS Foresight in around 1696. In 1701 he joined the fleet under Sir George Rooke at Cádiz, and shortly afterwards, as commodore, took command of a detachment charged with cooperating in an attack on Guadeloupe and Martinique, which was unsuccessful. This failure did not damage his career, though; in 1706 he assisted in the relief of Barcelona, and two years later was appointed to command the squadron before Dunkirk. In March 1711 he was promoted to rear-admiral and was also given a knighthood.

On 30 July, the expedition consisting of nine ships of war, two bomb vessels and 60 transports and tenders, British and colonial, with some 7,500 troops and marines aboard set sail from Boston. On the morning of 18 August, just as the expedition was about to enter the Saint Lawrence River, the wind began to blow hard from the northwest, and Walker was forced to seek shelter in Gaspé Bay. On the morning of the 20th, the wind veered to the southeast, and he was able to advance slowly past the western extremity of Anticosti Island before it died down and thick fog blanketed both shore and fleet. By the 22nd, the wind had freshened from the southeast, and there were intermittent breaks in the fog, but not sufficient to give sight of land. After consulting his pilots, Walker gave the signal to head the fleet southward. He returned a year later to England. Walker's journal, recounting the events of 1711, was published in 1720 and was edited by Gerald S. Graham and re-published jointly by the Champlain Society and the Navy Records Society in 1953.