French ship Mars (1740)

	Samuel Scott's Action between HMS Nottingham and the Mars. Mars was returning to France after the failed Duc d'Anville Expedition, 11 October 1746
History
France
Name	Mars
Namesake	Mars (mythology)
Builder	Brest
Laid down	January 1739
Launched	May 1740
Commissioned	April 1741
Fate	Captured by HMS Nottingham in 1746
Great Britain
Name	HMS Mars
Acquired	October 1746
Commissioned	March 1747
Fate	Wrecked in 1755
General characteristics
Tons burthen	1,374 tons
Propulsion	Sail
Sail plan	ship-rigged

Mars was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the French Navy. Mars was captured by HMS Nottingham off Cape Clear in 1746. She was taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Mars and was wrecked in 1755 near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

French service

She took part in the action that took HMS Northumberland off Ushant on 8 May 1744. Le Mars was captured by HMS Nottingham, under Philip Saumarez, off Cape Clear, off Ireland in 1746.

British service

Commissioned in March 1747, under the command of Captain Edward Hawke.

Francis Light, founder of Penang, began his Royal Navy service as a surgeon's servant on Mars in February 1754.^[1]

While on a voyage from Portsmouth, England to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, she was wrecked on 25 June 1755 on a rock (now known as Mars Rock) near Halifax Harbour.

Citations

^ "Light, Francis (The Light Letters)". AIM25. Part of The Malay Documents now held by School of Oriental and African Studies. Retrieved 25 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

References

Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.