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The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to the HMS Cossack Association

As with so many of the actions and occurrences with which H.M.S. Cossack was associated, the stories written years after differ in the facts remembered by this or that person.

Jim Rhodes writes in his recollections of his time in Cossack:

We were recalled to England to join the 4th Destroyer Flotilla and so moved from Alexandria to Malta, Malta to Gibraltar, Gibraltar to Weymouth, and Weymouth to Rosyth for convoy duties. While in the Firth of Forth, off May Island, we were in collision with a merchant vessel, and four ratings from H.M.S. Cossack were fatally injured. We returned to the port of Leith, affected repairs there, and buried the victims of this incident in the cemetery at Leith. I lost an "Oppo", Ordinary Seaman Pobble from Nottingham, in this collision. Our stay in Leith lasted until January1940 but, almost immediately afterwards, Cossack was again in collision, though this time it was minor. After this we were once again out of action due to an influenza outbreak among the Ship's Company. In the excellent article by our late shipmate A.B. (ST) Ginger Millward, entitled "HMS Cossack: A Ship in War and Peace" which appeared in Newsletter 3/99, Millward states that the ship that collided with us was the Doric Star. He wrote, "It was a fair sized ship, the Doric Star" and then goes on to say, "There was a Court of Enquiry, although I never learned the result of it". I can verify, however, that it was not the Doric Star which collided with Cossack on the night of 7/11/39 but the SS Borthwick. I was called to testify as a witness to the Board of Inquiry, which was held on board the cruiser HMS Edinburgh.

The actual paragraphs in Les Millward's article were as follows:

So we settled into East Coast convoy work and also Norwegian convoys, our first introduction to Norway, mostly to the North within the Arctic Circle with its biting winds blowing off the Polar Cap bringing ice which formed everywhere, particularly in the top-,ost rigging, and snow storms that blanked out all visibility.

It was while we were forming up one of these convoys in the Firth of Forth that one of the ships was in collision with us. It was a fair sized ship, the Doric Star. It struck us first on the fo'c'sle, her bows then sliding down our port side and inflicting more damage as she went. I was standing on the upper deck near the tubes and she stood high above us. It was a black night but the navigation lights were showing. There was a Court of Inquiry although I never learnt the result of this. We went into dockyard hands for repairs during which leave was given.

Trevor Tipping, DSM wrote:

After a few weeks, there being at that time no war in the Med, we were recalled home to join the Fleet at Scapa Flow. Besides working with the Fleet when it went to sea we were doing various patrols looking for enemy shipping. I remember escorting a convoy to Finland when the Finns were at war with Russia. Ironic to think that Russia would soon be fighting with us. Then in early December 1939 calamity struck. We were on our way to Scapa Flow and whilst in the Firth of Forth we hit a merchant ship in the darkness. I was on watch as lookout at the time and this merchant ship had been reported to the Officer of the Watch, which was the Navigator (Lieutenant George Dudley Pound - son of the First Sea Lord). Neither ship sank but both were damaged extensively. We lost 6 shipmates killed and a few more injured. The dead are buried at Leith as the ship was taken to Leith docks for repairs. Two gravestones were erected by the ship's company, one with 5 names and the other containing one. The ship's company were accommodated during this time in the Seamans Mission which was just outside the dockyard and we went to the ship each day to carry out various duties. Two weeks leave was given to each watch as we had not had Foreign Service Leave since coming from the Med. During our stay the main witnesses to the collision, including me, were ordered to attend a Court if Inquiry on a cruiser at South Queensferry - I remember having to trudge through fields of snow to get there. The outcome was that the Captain was put ashore, promoted to Commodore and was the C.O. of the Trawler training base in Lowestoft for the remainder of the war.

Recently, as a result of trying to find whether any of our remaining L03 members knew Able Seaman Joe Heatherley, who was one of those who died, Trevor Tipping wrote as follows:

I knew Joe Heatherley well being on the same messdeck. Enclosed is a photograph of his grave at Leith Cemetery. I understand that these graves are still well tended. I was one of the main witnesses at the Court of Inquiry. Captain de Pass was a very poor seaman as some people have mentioned. I remember that during exercises with the Home Fleet in the Atlantic in 1938 a destroyer cut across our bows during the night, causing him to have an accident in his trousers. I know this because I was his cabin hand at the time and his Ldg. Steward Carlos (Maltese) told me about it the next day!
Before he died, David Grant, DSM was interviewed by somebody from the Imperial War Museum about his service in the R.N. The following has been extracted and are questions put to him and his answers. The first answer is that to question about an air attack but then refers to the collision.

A. Yes. Oh. yes, I was watching it. I had a grandstand view of it. It was one lone German pilot. What he'd done was he'd hedge-hopped across from Germany and got into British waters without the radar picking him up. Anyway that was our first initiation into rejoining the Home Fleet. As I say we were running across to Norway, to Bergen, escorting submarines and one thing and another, various other things that were on the secret list. We were steaming across, heading for Bergen, it was in the last Dog Watch at 8 o'clock - in fact I know that for sure because I'd just come off watch myself at 8 o'clock - the last Dog Watch and this mail boat was heading for Bergen too. Of course she was belting along at high speed, as all mail boats do, about 28 - 30 knots, and she hit us bows on. Hers bows hit us amidships.

Q. Whose fault do you think it was?

A. Daniel got a reprimand for it but I don't think anyone was really responsible for it. It was a pitch-black night, no moon, and we had no navigation lights in wartime. I think we should call it just an Act of God.

Q. What dates would that have been about?

A. That would have been sometime in November, 1939 and, as I say, the bows of the old mail boat came right in and hit us amidships and we had six killed on the seamen's messdeck. The torpedomen's messdeck was underneath the seamen's messdeck and, as I say, we'd just come off watch. We were sitting having our supper and listening to ITMA and crash! All lights out, water up to your neck. We didn't know what had happened. We didn't know whether we'd been torpedoed or what had happened. Unfortunately the mail boat's bows came right in and closed our hatch up. So we were in pitch dark, no light coming from the messdeck above. We were in pitch darkness, up to our necks in water and all we could see faintly was a big hole in the side. As I say, we didn't know whether we'd been torpedoed or what had happened. We were stuck down there on the messdeck for about an hour before they managed to get the hatch open with crowbars.

Q. Were people panicking?

A. One chap did. One young torpedoman there, when it crashes in and knocked us aback, we were sitting there at the table, knocked us backwards into the water and of course everybody scrambled up and made a dive for the ladder. This young fellow, he managed to get first on the ladder, and I was next to him and there were one or two behind me, and when he got to the top of the ladder and found he couldn't get out, with the hatch being jammed, he went into hysterics. He kicked out with his feet and one of his feet hit me. Kicked me in the mouth and split my lip and knocked me off the ladder, so instead of being second on the ladder I was last. However, they got us out. It would be about an hour they took to get us out, maybe less than an hour, and then we filed up and it was marvellous to see the light from the messdeck above coming down. And then of course we found what had happened - it was a mail boat that had hit us and there was no danger of sinking luckily. As I say, I was last on the ladder and when I got to the top of the ladder my luck was still out. B gun support collapsed and the magazine holder hit me on the right, no, left shoulder - I don't know whether it was the left or right now, I forget now - and broke my collar bone. So as well as having a split lip I had a broken collar bone and all. Anyway, all those that were slightly injured, or badly injured, and, as I say, we also had six killed on the seamen's messdeck. You understand, the ship's side of a destroyer is only three-eighths of an inch steel and when her bows came in the steel just folded back, like a sardine tin folding back as you open it. Of course it trapped all these chaps in there and they of course were killed. The doctor tried to get them out but they couldn't. In fact I think that one or two of them had to be filled with morphia. Anyway, there were six eventually dead - they're buried in Leith. We erected a little monument to them, for the life of me I can't remember where it is now, somewhere in Leith, but there's a little memorial there for them.

Q. Where did you have get the repairs done?

A. Leith. We went into a dock in Leith. A private yard in Leith.

Q. Did it take long?

A. Yes. We didn't come out of dockyard hands again until nearly the end of January. We didn't mind that at all. We were quite happy about that as we were in there for Christmas and New Year and as I lived in Glasgow I could get home every night. That suited us down to the ground. Anyway, we got back into the fight, as you might say, again in January and of course the Altmark took place in the February.

Q. Can you describe what you remember of that please?

A. Well I can remember it very clearly, in fact my memory of it is as plain as day. HMS Cossack, by this time we had a new Captain. Daniel DePass was court martialled over the collision with the mail boat. He got a reprimand. I don't know what happened to him, I think he went back to the Admiralty, and then Captain Vian came aboard.

Records obtained by Keith Batchelor show that three ratings killed, two "missing presumed dead" and two seriously injured. They were:

Ldg. Seaman S. Cowan Killed
Ord. Sea. R. Popple Killed
Ord. Sea. T.C. Richards Killed
Able Sea. J.F. Heatherley Missing presumed dead
Ord. Sea. W.H. Clarke Missing presumed dead

Ldg. Sea. W.T. Colwell Seriously injured
Ord. Sea. C.G.L. Harmer Seriously injured

Trevor Tipping in his statements above says that 6 were killed and that there were two headstones erected in Leith Cemetery, one for five and the other for one. Unfortunately Trevor's photograph is just of the one headstone with the five names. Keith's records are not yet complete and it may well be that another name will emerge in due course.

The report, etc. of Court of Inquiry into the collision is held in the Public Records Office, file no. ADM/1/15753. To get full details of this collision it will obviously necessary to go to the Public Records Office and study the documentation.

Collision between HMS COSSACK and SS BORTHWICK

The collision took place at 2030 Tuesday 7 November 1939 in the Firth of Forth
56° 9´ N. 2° 30´ West. Both vessels were on a parallel course with Cossack being the overtaking vessel. Cossack appeared to turn to Port and collided with Borthwick.

HMS Cossack deemed 75% responsible and Captain De Pass incurred ‘Their Lordships severe displeasure.’

Killed

Ordinary Seaman Roy Popple. P/JX 153831

Ordinary Seaman Thomas C. Richmond. P/SSX 22987

Able Seaman Stanley Cowan. P/JX 152626

Missing presumed dead

Able Seaman Joseph F. Heatherley. P/SSX 15513

Ordinary Seaman William H. Clarke. P/SSX 26241

Seriously Injured

Ordinary Seaman Clifford G.L. Harmer P/SSX 22856 Injury to left hand.
Invalided out 25.9.40

Ordinary Seaman Harry M. Scholfield. P/SSX 22989

Leading Seaman William T. Colwell P/J 100503

Damage to HMS COSSACK

Damage to forecastle, Gun mounting and shield, side plating and bulkhead.

Estimated cost of repair

£1,400.00 (estimated by Superintendent of Dockyard)

Actual Cost

£11,256.00 (Messrs. Robb of Leith)

Ships Company interviewed at Board of Inquiry

Captain Daniel De Pass

Midshipman Gordon Reginald Balding RNR Midshipman of Watch (Joined COSSACK 1/9/39).

Ordinary Seaman Trevor Tipping P/SSX 22867 Port Lookout

Able Seaman Cecil Harold Patterson P/J 97929 Quartermaster at the Wheel

Leading Seaman Frederick John Taylor P/JX 139122. Leading Signalman of the Watch

Ordinary Seaman Peter George Proctor P/SSX 26243. After lookout. Port side.

Lt. M.W. Craig — Waller RN

Lt. G.D. Pound RN

Ordinary Seaman R. Stephenson P/SSX 24251

Ordinary Seaman R.G. Bonner P/JX 152608

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