Its does happen on the rare occasion (I think there may be even a few older Screenshot Threads if it).
I'm a bit surprised about the Fireballs sinking the ship 'after' you have it disabled... if used during the attack - yea - its pretty much a goner but once shes disabled then no shot should hurt it (unless they struck it JUST as you were disabling it - their 'unlucky shot' may have been the final blow).
I only say this because in one of my videos - I wanted a really dramatic effect on taking the Colossus once - so we disabled the ship - then everyone loaded their Firebrand and Explosives and I did a 'full running pss' RIGHT baside her and while driving by had all the cannons shoot their Fire / Explosives at once - made for a GREAT scene, and afterwards we still boarded her and took the looty!
Let us know if it continues on your end... or if anyone else has thoughts (keeping in mind that Firebrand is a know issues an listed at POTCO's web site)