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 United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

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 Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

. 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 founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

(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 ( nl, Vierde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the War of American Independence (1775-1783), broke out over ...

between Britain and the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

Admiral

George Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the ...

, 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 ''roads'' – the earlier form) is a body of water sheltered from rip currents, spring tides, or ocean swell where ships can lie reasonably safely at anchor without dragging or snatching.United States Army technical manual, TM 5- ...

. 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 Tanjung Layar, formerly Java's Eerste Punt in Dutch, and Java's First Point, or Java Head in English is a prominent cape at the extreme western end of Java, at the Indian Ocean entrance to the Sunda Strait. Java Head is a bluff at the sea's edg ...

), 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 a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

, 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