Scale: 1:48. A block model of the ‘Mars’ (1794), a 74-gun, two-decker ship of the line. The model differs somewhat in style from the usual block design models, in that it is both decked and equiped, pierced for gunports and has detail upperworks and rigging.

HMS ‘Mars’ was built at Chatham Dockyard between 1788 and 1794, to the design of Sir John Henslow. It was a 74-gun ship, combining the best effective gunpowder with a reasonably small and cheap hull. The ‘Mars’ had 24-pound instead of 18-pound guns on her upper deck and so was rated as a ‘large class’ ‘74’.

In 1795 the ‘Mars’ took part in Cornwallis’s retreat against a superior French force in the English Channel. The crew were involved in the 1797 mutiny at Spithead. In 1798 it captured the French 64-gun ship ‘Hercule’ in a celebrated action at the Passage du Raz. In 1805 it fought at Trafalgar under Captain George Duff, who was killed in the action. The ship was finally broken up for scrap in 1823.