During Warship Week in February 1942, Esher raised £1,192,211, which helped to build a warship, ‘HMS Cossack’. This was done by the public throwing money in to a rubber type float in a pool. (There was sufficient money left over to buy a submarine as well).

The story continues.

HMS COSSACK (ii) (R57)

Year by Year

Discover the history of the HMS Cossack from 1944 to 1960.

You can search the ‘year’ and ‘month’ to find a specific date and also ‘click’ on the date itself to reveal any images and moments from that date.

16 August 1950

Hong Kong for refit

Captain V.C. Begg appointed Captain (September 1950 – March 1951)

Navigating officer       Lt Cdr (N) Aldington
September 1950          Hong Kong

19 August 1950

10 11 August Sasebo

01 September 1950

Captain V.C. Begg appointed Captain (September 1950 – March 1951)

 

Navigating officer       Lt Cdr (N) Aldington

September 1950          Hong Kong

04 September 1950

Hong Kong. Extract from letter sent home from the Captain.  “Some people think Korea will be all over by middle of October. Others reckon it will go on a great deal longer. The news from those parts seems to oscillate wildly and daily from optimism to deepest gloom! ….. the object is to get COSSACK who has  been flogging the oceans without much respite for the last six months refitted before the winter weather onsets and also to give the Ship’s Company a view of the bright li…

Hong Kong. Extract from letter sent home from the Captain.  “Some people think Korea will be all over by middle of October. Others reckon it will go on a great deal longer. The news from those parts seems to oscillate wildly and daily from optimism to deepest gloom! ….. the object is to get COSSACK who has  been flogging the oceans without much respite for the last six months refitted before the winter weather onsets and also to give the Ship’s Company a view of the bright lights”

Donated by Peter Begg

10 September 1950

Hong Kong. Extract from Captain Beggs letters home.  The Gloucester Hotel Hong Kong. ” I have been pretty busy getting around seeing people and getting ‘in the picture’. Not a very pretty one I fear. Of course what the East is sufferig from is Nationalism not Communism. the latter is only outward symbolism which aids the aspirations of the former. We are seeing in effect the ‘yellow peril’ of our youth – the yellow men kicking out the white man’s Empire…

Hong Kong. Extract from Captain Beggs letters home.  The Gloucester Hotel Hong Kong. ” I have been pretty busy getting around seeing people and getting ‘in the picture’. Not a very pretty one I fear. Of course what the East is sufferig from is Nationalism not Communism. the latter is only outward symbolism which aids the aspirations of the former. We are seeing in effect the ‘yellow peril’ of our youth – the yellow men kicking out the white man’s Empires in the Far East.

Donated by Peter Begg

12 September 1950

Task Force 95 under Rear Admiral W. G. Allan E. Smith USN – USS Dixie (AD-14)

 

CTG 95.1 Korean One (Blockade Group) – Rear Admiral W. G. Andrews RN

 

HMS Belfast CL HMCS Cayuga DD
HMS Kenya CL HMCS Sioux DD
HMS Jamaica CL HMCS Athabaskan DD
HMS Cossack DD HMCS Warramunga DD
HMS Consort DD HMNS Evertsen DD
HMS Cockade DD    

 

Other task forces were designated CTG 95.2 (Blockade) CTG 95.5 (Escorts)

CTG 95.6 (Minesweepers) CTG 95.7 (Republic of Kor…

Task Force 95 under Rear Admiral W. G. Allan E. Smith USN – USS Dixie (AD-14)

 

CTG 95.1 Korean One (Blockade Group) – Rear Admiral W. G. Andrews RN

 

HMS Belfast CL HMCS Cayuga DD
HMS Kenya CL HMCS Sioux DD
HMS Jamaica CL HMCS Athabaskan DD
HMS Cossack DD HMCS Warramunga DD
HMS Consort DD HMNS Evertsen DD
HMS Cockade DD    

 

Other task forces were designated CTG 95.2 (Blockade) CTG 95.5 (Escorts)

CTG 95.6 (Minesweepers) CTG 95.7 (Republic of Korean Forces.)

 

17 September 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Capain Begg. “The Gloucester Hotel Hotel/ HMS Cossack Hong Kong. The C-in-C’s flat is very comfortable. I breakfast, lunch and ea in my cabin and dine in the mess. From the veranda I can look down at the harbour and main town and COSSACK herself is lying in the centre of the picture about half a mile away and some 500 feet down. None of the rest of the flotilla are in harbour now and as I can only get in the way on board while the refit goes on I am…

Extract from a letter sent home by Capain Begg. “The Gloucester Hotel Hotel/ HMS Cossack Hong Kong. The C-in-C’s flat is very comfortable. I breakfast, lunch and ea in my cabin and dine in the mess. From the veranda I can look down at the harbour and main town and COSSACK herself is lying in the centre of the picture about half a mile away and some 500 feet down. None of the rest of the flotilla are in harbour now and as I can only get in the way on board while the refit goes on I am not wildly busy”

By kind permission of of Peter Begg

20 September 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “HMS Cossack, Hong Kong. We are now out of dry dock with a nice clean bottom, so I feel we have reached the end of the beginning!”

By kind permission of Peter Begg

27 September 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. ” HMS Cossack, Hong Kong. The refit progresses quite well”

By kind permission of Peter Begg

01 October 1950

(Tuesday) Hong Kong. Wind E to NW force 4 decreasing to 1 at noon then increasing to 3. Temperature 80 to 87 F

  1. HMS Comus entered harbour and secured to No 7 Buoy.
  2. Hands employed refitting ship and preparing to shift berth.
  3. 2nd Starboard to breakfast.

0930 Both watches employed refitting ship.

  1. Slipped from West arm and secured to No 8 buoy.
04 October 1950

(Wednesday) Wind NW force 3 increasing to 4 at noon then to 6 at 1600. Temperature 81 F.

  1. 2nd Port employed refitting ship.
  2. 2nd Port relieved for breakfast.1st Starboard employed refitting ship.
05 October 1950

(Thursday) Wind NW to N. force 7 decreasing to 5. Temperature 71 to 79 F.

  1. 1st Starboard employed refitting ship.

1315 . Received supplies from COMUS.

06 October 1950

(Friday) Hong Kong. Wind North force 5 decreasing to 2. Temperature 70 to 74 F.

0755 1st Starboard watch employed refitting ship.

0815 Both watches refitting ship.

1035 Commenced movement by tugs

1050 Secured starboard side to on West Arm East

08 October 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg “The Hong Kong Club. “It is no good in this part of the world appealing to the civic responsibility of the individual to exercise restraint in the use of water. John Chinamans first and only duty is to the family, and if in supplying them he should cause the the families in the next room to die of thirst, he would be quite indifferent. Not, one would think, really a very suitable breeding ground for the communist doctrine. Nor of course…

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg “The Hong Kong Club. “It is no good in this part of the world appealing to the civic responsibility of the individual to exercise restraint in the use of water. John Chinamans first and only duty is to the family, and if in supplying them he should cause the the families in the next room to die of thirst, he would be quite indifferent. Not, one would think, really a very suitable breeding ground for the communist doctrine. Nor of course is it, but the Communists offer relatively un-corrupt government – at any rate so far, though no-one thinks this will last – and the last lot were just praying for”

By kind permission of Peter Begg.

15 October 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. ” HMS Cossack Hong Kong. Next Saturday I hope to take COSSACK out for the first time. The dockyard are more or less out of the ship and we are painting, storing, fuelling, ammunitioning, watering and running trials on all the machinery and equipment – a busy time.”

By kind permission of Peter Begg

22 October 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “HMS Cossack. Hong Kong. Unfortunately, my first essay to sea had to be postponed yesterday due to some auxilary machinery failing on trial….. I had to stop (the letter) yesterday as the cinema was due to start and I did not want to keep the Wardroom waiting. We show films on a little 16 mm projector in the Wardroom and really it is awfully good. Sitting in an arm chair it is just as good as the 3/6s!… I have just completed the f…

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “HMS Cossack. Hong Kong. Unfortunately, my first essay to sea had to be postponed yesterday due to some auxilary machinery failing on trial….. I had to stop (the letter) yesterday as the cinema was due to start and I did not want to keep the Wardroom waiting. We show films on a little 16 mm projector in the Wardroom and really it is awfully good. Sitting in an arm chair it is just as good as the 3/6s!… I have just completed the first move from alongside the dockyard to a buoy without disaster!”

By kind permission of Peter Begg.

23 October 1950

Refit completed

27 October 1950

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “HMS Cossack. Hong Kong. Tomorrow morning we set sail for Korea. We have had a very full week and have actually got through amost all we set out to do. We have been at sea each day. On Monday morning I was apprehensive about disgracing myself and feeling, or worse, being sick. By Thursday I was ordering smaller ships supposed to exercising with us into harbour to take shelter from the weather and the boldly sallying forth ourselves!  The ot…

Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “HMS Cossack. Hong Kong. Tomorrow morning we set sail for Korea. We have had a very full week and have actually got through amost all we set out to do. We have been at sea each day. On Monday morning I was apprehensive about disgracing myself and feeling, or worse, being sick. By Thursday I was ordering smaller ships supposed to exercising with us into harbour to take shelter from the weather and the boldly sallying forth ourselves!  The other personal matter has been the handling of the ship – an entirely new experience, of course, to me”

 

By kind permission of Peter Begg

28 October 1950

Sailed from Hong Kong

31 October 1950

Sasebo

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1806-1816

This is the account of the first vessel named HMS Cossack, a title that would be passed on to five later ships and commemorated by the Royal Navy in the Cossack Building at HMS Raleigh.

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1854-1875

The second Cossack was originally ordered by Russia for the Black Sea Fleet in December 1852 at a cost of 290,000 silver roubles. However, when relations between Britain and Russia deteriorated, Russia sold the vessels to the Hamburg trading firm Henry Mersk & Co.

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1886-1905

This account covers the third vessel named HMS Cossack. Launched on 3 June 1886 and in service until 1905, she spent the majority of her career in the Far East, calling at India, Aden, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and other ports.

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1907-1919

The fourth HMS Cossack received the first Battle Honour for participating in operations along the Belgian coast from 17 October to 8 November 1914. This section contains copies of the original construction contract and detailed plans showing her launch, deck arrangements, and machinery.

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1938-1941

Credited with battle honours including Baltic 1855, Witu 1890, Dover Patrol 1914–1919, Narvik 1940, Norway 1940, Atlantic 1940–1941, the Bismarck Action 1941, and the Malta Convoys 1941, the HMS Cossack in service from 1938 to 1941 was a formidable presence.

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1944-1960

During Warship Week in February 1942, the town of Esher raised £1,192,211, contributing to the construction of the warship HMS Cossack. The funds were collected by the public depositing money into a rubber-type float in a pool. Remarkably, the surplus was enough to fund a submarine as well. The story continues.

Anchor crest

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