HMVS Cerberus

HMVS "Cerberus" is a breastwork monitor, a type of turreted warship designed in the 1860s by Edward Reed [Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty] . Launched in 1868 to defend the Australian colony of Victoria, "Cerberus" was named after the three-headed mythical dog which guarded the entrance to Hades [ [http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/hmvs-cerberus/information.html Australian National Heritage listing for HMVS Cerberus] ] .

"Cerberus" is one the few surviving examples of a monitor warship in the world, but is currently rapidly deteriorating in Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. A local campaign to save the vessel has thus far failed to raise the required capital.

Design and construction

Cerberus was a steam-powered ironclad of revolutionary design, mounting four guns in two large turrets to the fore and aft of her superstructure. This was a drastic break with the traditional design of wooden warships and pointed the way forward to the battleships of the end of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth. She was the first major British warship to be powered entirely by steam, i.e. lacking sails.

Designed by Sir Edward Reed, the Chief Constructor for the Royal Navy, she was the first of seven similar vessels. The ship was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company shipyard on the River Tyne, England and launched on 2 December 1868 and completed in May 1869.

Her twin screws were driven by two horizontal twin cylinder double-acting simple steam engines made by Maudslay Son & Field. They had 43 inch (1.1 m) bore, 27 inch (.69 m) stroke and were provided with 30 psi (207 kPa) steam produced by five coal fired boilers with 13 furnaces.

Preparations at Chatham Dockyard for the journey to Australia included fitting a temporary raised deck and sides to increase the freeboard and three masts and sails. Under Lieutenant Panter (who commanded her for the next seven years), the ship travelled via the Suez Canal, with frequent stops to refuel wherever possible - for instance Gibraltar, Malta, Aden and Galle. It was a difficult journey, as the bunker capacity for 240 tons of coal meant she could only travel at around 6 knots (11 km/h) with ten days between refueling stops. Her flat bottom and shallow draught (designed for operating in shallow water) meant that she rolled badly in the rough weather that she encountered. She arrived at Melbourne on 9 April 1871.

Operational history

HMVS (Her Majesty's Victorian Ship) "Cerberus" was the most powerful unit in the Victorian Navy and patrolled Melbourne's Port Philip Bay for many years. In 1901, after the federation of the Australian colonies, she was incorporated into the Commonwealth naval forces, which became the Royal Australian Navy in 1911.

By this time, however, she was already in poor condition. Her boilers had been condemned in 1906 and her main armament condemned in 1908. She was now used as a floating explosives store until 1921 when she was renamed HMAS "Platypus II" and used as a depot ship for Australia's fleet of six J class submarines. The name HMAS Cerberus is now used for the naval depot at Flinders, south of Melbourne.

With the disbanding of the submarine squadron, Cerberus was sold for scrap on 23 April 1924 to the Melbourne Salvage Co Pty. Ltd for £409. On 14 May 1924 she was towed to Williamstown Dockyard for dismantling. Attempts at removing the armour were not economically worth while, so the ship was sold in 1926 to the municipal authorities at Sandringham for use as a breakwater. She was sunk on 2 September in 3 metres of water at Half Moon Bay in Black Rock, Victoria where she still remains. She is now badly corroded and in very poor shape but capable of being stabilised.

Restoration campaign

On 27 December 1993, during a large storm, the hulk suffered a major collapse. Various plans have been put forward to save her on account of her historical significance. Currently "Friends of the Cerberus" is pursuing a stabilisation plan costing $A6.5 million. Funding is being sought from the Victorian State Government and the Australian Government.

References

*"British Battleships", Oscar Parkes, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1990. ISBN 0-85052-604-3
*"Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905", Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-85177-133-5
*"Australia's Ships of War", John Bastock, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1975. ISBN 0-207-12927-4

External links

* [http://www.cerberus.com.au Friends of the Cerberus]
* [http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/cerberus.html The collapse of HMVS Cerberus] - plenty of photos of the tragic results of official neglect.
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=melbourne+australia&ie=UTF8&ll=-37.967487,145.00789&spn=0.002093,0.003621&t=h&z=18 Google Maps]