French ship Mars (1740) explained

Mars was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the French Navy. Mars was captured by 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 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.

References

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

Further reading

• Book: Demerliac, Alain. La Marine de Louis XV: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1715 A 1774. 2004. Éditions Ancre. 2-906381-19-5. French.
• Book: Roche, Jean-Michel. 2005. Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. 978-2-9525917-0-6. 165892922. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. 1. (1671–1870)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Light, Francis (The Light Letters). AIM25. 25 October 2019. Part of The Malay Documents now held by School of Oriental and African Studies..