Commander Henry Samuel Hawker obtained his first commission in 1838, serving firstly aboard H.M.S. Pearl and then H.M.S. Edinburgh. In the latter ship he served off the coast of Syria, where he commanded a launch covering a party who had landed on the coast for the purpose of destroying a train which had been laid between one of the outlying castles and the town of Beirut. He witnessed the fall of St. Jean d'Acre on 3.11.1840. Further service followed in the Mediterranean aboard H.M.S. Aigle and then in 1845 off South America aboard the Steam Frigate H.M.S. Sampson. Hawker returned home in 1846 and was placed on Half-Pay.