The Brigantine MARQUES was built in 1917 near Valencia, Spain, and was employed in the fruit trade between the Canary Islands and Northern Europe. The vessel was severely damaged during World War II, but was rebuilt in 1947 for use in the Mediterranean trade.

In 1971 MARQUES was purchased by Robin Cecil-Wright, who took her to Southampton, England for extensive restoration and re-rigging. Five years later she sailed into prominence with appearances in numerous television programs and series, including: "The Onedin Line", "Poldark", "The Fight Against Slavery", and "Dracula." In 1977 a 1/2 share in the MARQUES was bought by Mark Litchfield, who then became co-owner and co-skipper along with Cecil-Wright, a partnership which eventually evolved into ownership by the China Clipper Society, a full-fledged corporation. That same year the vessel acquired her unusual rig, basically a brig with a small spankermast stepped far aft, making her a bark. This was done as part of her roll as the BEAGLE in a BBC television series about Charles Darwin.

Since 1983 the American Sail Training Association had been working with the China Clipper Society to place trainees aboard the MARQUES for the 1984 Sail Training Races. In preparation for the summer's program she sailed from Bristol, England to Antigua in mid-winter, and spent the remainder of the cold months doing charter work and making day sails from a base in the Caribbean.

The first leg of the "Tall Ships" races began in Puerto Rico on Sunday, May 20th, 1984, and finished five days later in Bermuda. MARQUES raced against five other ships and won trophies for first overall and first in her class. The next leg of the race was from Hamilton, Bermuda to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the start on Saturday, June 2nd, at 1400 hours. However, in the early morning of June 3rd, MARQUES was lost during a squall, along with 19 members of her 28-member sail-training crew. Two of the victims, Susan Peterson Howell, and Andrea Lee, were employees of Mystic Seaport Museum Museum.