Cossack

Posted by Jon Miller on Thursday 2nd of July 2026 03:06

Portsmouth, 27 April 1816: On Wednesday night, soon after seven o’clock a fire, which excited considerable alarm was discovered in the Cossack frigate, lying in the boat camber, in the north part of this dock-yard. The flames raged with destructive fury until nine o’clock, by which time, after the most praiseworthy and indefatigable exertions, and by which the ship was deluged with upwards of 1200 tons of water, they were subdued. As the Cossack was condemned to be broken up (being unfit for further service), and the injury she has sustained is so little, compared to what she might have been expected to have received considering the time she was in flames, the loss incurred is very trifling. No cause can be assigned to the accident; the fire issued forth from the larboard quarter-gallery; all the quarter-deck was burnt. [Hampshire Telegraph, 29 April 1816]