In June 1746 the French sent a powerful force to re-take Louisbourg and capture Nova Scotia. A long stormy journey from Brest and disease defeated them and the third surviving commanding officer, de la Jonquiere took the remnants back to France in early October. Several ships were captured by British cruisers and one of these was the ‘Mars’ which had been driven by bad weather as far south as Martinique, where she refitted. After sailing for France she fell in with the ‘Nottingham’, commanded by Captain Philip de Saumarez, and was taken after a two hour engagement. The ‘Mars’ was very short of men through disease and lost in the engagement 12 killed and 16 wounded. The ‘Nottingham’ had three killed and 16 wounded.

The two ships are shown in action in the right half of the picture. The ‘Nottingham’ is on the right and the ‘Mars’ is in the act of striking, her main-mast shot away and her main-yard shot through. The left half of the picture is plain sea and sky. The engraving after Monamy from a drawing by Swaine is so similar to this picture that they must be connected. The museum has an engraving by N. Parr after a drawing by F. Swaine and a painting by P. Monamy which bears an uncanny resemblance to this painting.