John May built ''Mars'' at the naval dockyard at Amsterdam in 1769 as a

fifth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

for the Dutch Navy. The British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

captured her on 3 February 1781 at Saint Eustatia. The Navy took her into service as HMS ''Mars'', but sold her on 25 March 1784. Richard Bush purchased ''Mars'', retained her name, and had her fitted as an

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

. Adams repaired her and took her measurements in 1786. She sailed to China in April 1786 for the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

(EIC) and was wrecked in December 1787 shortly after her return to Britain.

Capture

Following the outbreak of the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

between Britain and the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

Admiral

George Rodney Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, Order of the Bath, KB (baptism, bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator. He is best known for his commands ...

, acting under orders from London, captured the Dutch island of St Eustatius on 3 February 1781. ''Mars'' under the command of Van Bijland was the only Dutch warship in the

roadstead A roadstead or road is a sheltered body of water where ships can lie reasonably safely at anchor without dragging or snatching.United States Army technical manual, TM 5-360. Port Construction and Rehabilitation'. Washington: United States. Gove ...

. Two British ships. ''Gibraltar'' and the ''Prince William'' shot at her without orders, for which their captains were reprimanded by Rodney. ''Mars'' was captured together with 5 other small ships of war and more 130 merchant vessels.

British Royal Navy

The Royal Navy commissioned ''Mars'' under Captain John Whitmore Chetwynd. He sailed her back to England as part of a fleet of prizes and other ships. She arrived at Portsmouth on 28 June 1781, and was paid off at Chatham in August. The Navy completed her survey there on 12 February 1782. It sold her on 25 March 1784 for £505.

East Indiaman

Richard Bush purchased her and had ''Mars'' refitted by Adams as an East Indiaman. Under the command of Captain William Farington (or Farrington), she left The Downs on 26 April 1786, bound for China as an "extra" ship for the EIC. ''Mars'' arrived at Whampoa on 11 December. She crossed the Second Bar on 22 March 1787, and was at Mew Bay (some two miles east of Tanjung Layar), by 11 May. She arrived at Mauritius on 15 June, and left on 4 August. By 21 September she was at

St Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

, which she left on 2 October. ''Mars'' arrived at The Downs on 8 December, but was lost on the Margate Sands the next day. The pilot made an error that resulted in her stranding. The cost to the EIC of the loss of her cargo was £70,000.

Notes

Citations

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mars (1769) 1769 ships Ships built in Amsterdam Captured ships Frigates of the Royal Navy Ships of the British East India Company Maritime incidents in 1787 Frigates of the Dutch Republic