The Board and Search School (BSS), MV Cossack, was designed and constructed to meet the training requirements of the FLEET and the ever evolving Operations that RN Boarding Teams are faced with.
The BSS is a lodger unit within HMS RALEIGH owned by 1 Assault Group Royal Marines (1AGRM) who are located at RM TAMAR in HMNB DEVONPORT. The BSS is co-located with the Military Training Unit (MTU) in the South Eastern corner of HMS RALEIGH.
Now comes under 47Cdo Raiding Group RM (formerly 1 AGRM). As known at February 2020)
The BSS is responsible for training all Royal Navy Boarding Teams tasked with conducting the search and exploitation of Merchant Vessels. This is achieved in the form of a 15 day Board and Search Course (BCS). The School delivers 11 courses each year loaded with a maximum of 30 students per course. 10 International Defence Training (IDT) 5 day theory only boarding modules are also available through MWS COLLINGWOOD.
This is now 7 a year (as known at February 2020)
The “Cossack” building was named after HMS Cossack, who on the 14th February 1940 in Jossingfjord Norway conducted the boarding of the German prison ship ALTMARK to free 2999 merchant navy seamen and bring them back to Britain
Under the direct orders of the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, HMS Cossack was given clear instructions to Board and Search the German ship ALTMARK. The Altmark was in Norwegian territorial waters but her voyage was quite legal if she was a genuine merchant ship. Against her were reports that she was carrying 299 British prisoners liberated from the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee from the prizes that she sunk or captured.
At 2312 Cossack with a boarding party of three officers and thirty ratings approached the Altmark in Norwegian Waters to Board and Search the Merchant Vessel. During the initial confrontation, four Germans were killed and five wounded against one injury in the Boarding Team. 299 captives were released and transferred to the Cossack. At 2355 the Cossack sailed out of Jossingford Fjord into the Worlds headlines
On the 26th May 1940, HMS Cossack was escorting a convoy when Captain Vian received orders to leave the convoy and take four other destroyers, the SIKH, ZULU and MAORI and the Polish ship PIORUN, to relieve other destroyers which were escorting the Home Fleet Battleships King George V and Rodney.
Seven hours later a message from an aircraft was intercepted which reported the position of the Bismarck. Without breaking radio silence, Captain Vian decided to head for that position instead of continuing on to join the battleships. In appalling weather and very heavy seas they battled towards the position and ten hours later sighted Bismarck.
Throughout the night the destroyers attacked and harried the German battleship despite being heavily outgunned. It was important that they held her until the British battleships could arrive, which they did at 8 o’clock the next morning. Bismarck was sunk and, despite attacks from the large formations of German aircraft, the ship safely returned to the UK.
The last HMS Cossack was very active in the Korean War before being scrapped in 1960.
The first Trainer was opened at HMS Cambridge on the 25th July 1999 by the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jock Slater GCB. LVO. ADC. The new building at HMS Raleigh commenced training on 14th January 2002 after HMS Cambridge decommissioned and was formally opened by the Princess Royal on 17th May 2002.
The new Ship in a Box (SIAB) Board & Search Training facility which is designed to further enhance RNBTs search and exploitation techniques of Merchant vessel was opened by FOST Rear Admiral Key 12th June 2014. This facility will allow for enhanced training in Fast Rope Helicopter insertion training, blank fire exercises and Simulated ammunition close quarters training.
The Board & Search School since being located at HMS RALEIGH has had the following OC’s:
LT Pete Briggs RN 2002 – 2010
LT Duncan Turner RN 2010 – 2012
LT Chris Carter RN FEB 2012 – SEP 2014
LT Carl Harwood RN 5 SEP 2014 – SEP 2016
Capt Olly Mason RM SEP 2016 – SEP 2018
Capt Tony Swan RM SEP 2018 – Mar 2020
Capt Lee Goode RM Mar 2020 –
OCBSS
47Cdo Raiding Group RM
HMS RALEIGH
Cossack Building
Torpoint
Cornwall
PL11 2PD
Tel 01752 811956|Mil 9375 41956|
NAVY-1AGRM-BSS OC|DII
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
