The Chronology of HMS COSSACK
1806 – 1816
The first of the name
[as known at April 2017]
Background
Ex PANDOR (Renamed COSSACK 1806)
Built by Simon Temple, South Shields
6th rate 22 gun Banterer-class post ship of Sir William Rule design which were approved 28 March 1805.
Designed for:
155 crew.
22 x 9- pounders on the upper deck
6 x 24 – pounders on the quarterdeck
2 x 6-pounder (Chase) plus 2 x 24 pounder carronades on the for’castle
HMS COSSACK
30 January 1805 Ordered
July 1805 Keel laid
117feet 11 ½ inches – length on the Gun deck
98 feet 4 ½ inches length x 32 feet 3 ½ inches breadth x 10 feet 6 inches depth in hold.
Draught 9 feet 1inch forward 12 feet 11 inches aft at launch
54560/94bm (Builders measurement) Vessels tonnage – carrying capacity of the hull (k x b x ½ b ÷94) where the keel is k and b the breadth of the ship outside the planking but inside the wales. Fractions of a ton are expressed as ninety –fourths. Wales are the thick strakes of timber running along the outside of the hull for structural strength – usually as unbroken exterior ribs running from end to end on either side.
Armament (Not as design)
2 x 9 pounders with 20 carronades on the upper deck –
2 x 6 pounders plus 4 x 18 pounder carronades on the quarterdeck
2 x 6-pounder (Chase) plus 2 x 24 pounder carronades on the for’castle
24 December 1806 Launched
16 January to 2 July 1807 Completed at Chatham
22 June 1808. Under Captain George Digby boats (with those of COMET) destroyed forts at Santander.
August / September 1808. Captured the French ship Pierre Caesar (with HMS Seine and HMS Unicorn) and took the schooner LA MOUCHE in the Channel. (With HMS Unicorn). The Pierre Caesar was taken into service as HMS Tigress.
November 1810 Under Captain Thomas Garth in the Mediterranean
April 1811 Under Captain Thomas Searle
28 December 1811 Torbay. Arrived from Cadiz.
30 December 1811 Plymouth Arrived and put in quarantine.
2 January 1812 Plymouth Released from quarantine.
12 January 1812 Deal Sailed for the Nore.
February 1812 Under Captain William King
19 May 1812 Deal. Sailed for Portsmouth.
7 June 1812 Sailed for Portugal
10 June 1812, The COSSACK, PREVOYANTE, PIQUE and JASPER, departed Portsmouth, with the Lisbon and Mediterranean convoys, the last two vessels only going as far as Cape Finisterre before returning to England.
February 1813 Under Captain Francis Stanfell in the Mediterranean
31 July 1813 Plymouth. Arrived from Bermuda.
Second source Arrived from Jamaica with dispatches and some of the crew of HM late brig PEACOCK, wounded in the action with the HORNET
1 September 1813 Plymouth. Sailed to the westward.
March 1814 Under Captain Edward Sibly
July 1814 Under Captain James Wemyss
August 1814 Under Captain Robert Rodney
15 December 1814, Arrived Bermuda
20 December 1814 Departed Bermuda, for Castine, with 2 or 3 transports in convoy with detachments of the 62nd and 29th regiments on board, but parted with them in a gale off Jeffery’s Bank.
11 January 1815, Arrived Halifax, from Bermuda.
21 March 1815 Arrived Halifax, from a cruise and with the schooner THISTLE, Capt. Clark, from Malaga to Halifax, with wine and fruit, but which was captured on 25 Dec 1814, by the US privateer America, and re-captured later by the COSSACK. THISTLE had lost her foremast and bowsprit in a gale and being out of provisions for 30 days, the crew had subsisted on the wine and fruit in the hold.
21 May 1815 Portsmouth, came into harbour.
August 1815 Under Captain Lord Algeron Percy
June 1816 Broken up at Portsmouth
Research sources:
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793 – 1817 Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.by Rif Winfield. Sea Forth Publishing ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4
The National Archives
The internet (sources not guaranteed)