HMS Mars in Malta | 1860 Size:32"x24" off Chatham and Sheerness Dockyards

off Chatham and Sheerness Dockyards

while Russian losses were minimal

including many of the sick in their beds

Their employment requires uncommon exertions

likely based this work on Ross’s published narrative

HMS Mars in Malta | 1860 Size:32"x24" off Chatham and Sheerness DockyardsThis early photograph captures HMS Mars anchored in the Grand Harbour of Valletta around 1860, at a time when Malta served as a vital strategic base for the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. Launched in 1848, HMS Mars was a powerful 90 gun second rate ship of the line, representing the final generation of large wooden warships before the rapid transition to ironclads and steam propulsion. By the 1860s, vessels like Mars were already becoming symbols of