The bay on New Zealand's North Island named after a British admiral is Hawke Bay.
Captain James Cook named the bay in October 1769 in honour of Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. Hawke had become famous for Britain's victory over the French at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, a naval success that helped secure British control of the seas during the Seven Years' War.
Hawke Bay lies on the east coast of the North Island, extending roughly 90 kilometres from Māhia Peninsula to Cape Kidnappers. Napier, Hastings and Wairoa are among the principal communities around it. The region is also tectonically active: the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake raised parts of the seabed near Napier above sea level.
Readers often confuse Hawke Bay with Hawke's Bay. The bay's official name is generally written without an apostrophe, while the surrounding region remains Hawke's Bay. Māori tradition calls the area Te Matau-a-Māui, meaning “Māui's fishhook.”