HMS Cossack (F03)

HMS Cossack (L03/F03/G03) was a Tribal-class destroyer which became famous for the boarding of the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters, and the associated rescue of sailors originally captured by the Admiral Graf Spee.

Cossack was laid down by the High Walker Yard of Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 9 June 1936, launched on 8 June 1937 by Mrs. S. V. Goodall, commissioned on 7 June 1938 and completed on 14 June 1938.

Cossack's first major taste of warfare was on February 16 1940. This was the celebrated action in Jøssingfjord which resulted in the freeing of the Admiral Graf Spee prisoners on the supply ship Altmark and the death of seven of Altmark's crew members. (For more information, see the Wikipedia article Altmark Incident.)

Shortly afterwards Cossack participated in the Second Battle of Narvik (April 1940). In late 1940, she was part of a force that was assigned to hunt for a German surface raider that had been reported as breaking out into the North Atlantic. The force consisted of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, light cruiser Edinburgh, and destroyers Electra, Echo, Escapade, and Cossack. After spending a week at sea, including Christmas Day, after the report turned out to be false, she returned to port on New Years Eve.

In May 1941, she participated in the pursuit and destruction of Bismarck. Escorting convoy WS-8B to the Middle East, Cossack and 4 other destroyers broke off on 26 May, and headed towards the area where Bismarck was reported. They found her that evening, and made several torpedo attacks in the evening and into the next morning. No hits were scored, but they kept her gunners from getting any sleep, making it easier for the battleships to attack her the next morning.

On 24 October 1941, Cossack was escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom when she was struck by one torpedo fired by the German submarine U-563. She was taken in tow by a tug from Gibraltar on 25 October, but the weather worsened and the tow was slipped on 26 October. Cossack sank in the Atlantic west of Gibraltar on 27 October 1941. 159 of her crew were lost.

See HMS Cossack for other ships of this name.