French ship Mars (1740)

Mars was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was captured by off Cape Clear Island in 1746. She was taken into Royal Navy service as the third-rate ship of the line 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. As she was returning from the failed Duc d'Anville expedition, Mars was captured by under Captain Philip Saumarez off Cape Clear Island on 11 October 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 mate on Mars in February 1754.
While on a voyage from Portsmouth to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, she was wrecked on 25 June 1755 on a rock near Halifax Harbour.