H.M.S. Nottingham was a 60-gun two-decker built at Sheerness and launched on 17 August 1745. Measured by her builder at 1,068 tons, she was 144 feet in length with a 41 1/2 foot beam, and carried a complement of 400 officers and men. Commissioned immediately upon completion since the War (of the Austrian Succession) with France was still in progress, she was sent to the Indian Ocean where a strong British naval presence was supporting the East India Company's attempts to increase their territory at France's expense. France too was hoping to benefit from the war by enlarging her own Indian possessions and regarded the capture of the rich and strategic English factories at Madras as a primary objective. The campaign to take the settlement, during which the Mars, 56 guns, was one of three warships sent from Europe to support French naval forces, was protracted but successful and Madras fell on 14 September 1746. Stung into action, the British retaliated and amongst several successes at sea was the celebrated capture of Mars by H.M.S. Nottingham a month later.