HMVS Cerberus (Her Majesty's Victorian Ship) is a breastwork monitor that served in the Victoria Naval Forces, the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF), and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1871 and 1924.

Built in Jarrow, UK, at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company for the colony of Victoria, Australia, under the supervision of Charles Pasley, Cerberus was completed in 1870, and arrived in Port Phillip, the port of Melbourne on the SE coast of Australia in 1871, where she spent the rest of her career. The monitor was absorbed into the CNF following Federation in 1901, and was renamed HMAS Cerberus when the navy became the RAN in 1911. By World War I, Cerberus weapons and boilers were inoperable; the ship served as a guardship and munitions store, while carrying the personnel of the fledgling Royal Australian Naval College on her paybooks. In 1921, the ship was renamed HMAS Platypus II, and tasked as a submarine tender for the RAN's six J-class submarines.

In 1924, the monitor was sold for scrap, and was scuttled as a breakwater off Half Moon Bay. The wreck became a popular site for scuba diving and picnics over the years, but there was a structural collapse in 1993. There have been several campaigns to preserve the ship (one of which is ongoing), as she is one of the last monitors, the only surviving ship of the Australian colonial navies, and one of only two surviving ships in the world with Coles turrets. These seven vessels were unofficially referred to as the 'Monster class'. She had a standard ship's company of 12 officers and 84 sailors, with an additional 40 to man the ship in wartime. made by Maudslay Son & Field. steam produced by five coal-fired boilers with 13 furnaces. The steam engines generated on trials and drove two propellers with a diameter of Cerberus was the first British warship to be solely steam-powered. The turrets were mounted fore and aft; each had a crew of 33, had a 270° field of fire, and had to be hand-cranked into position.

The ship had armour plating ranging from in thickness for the waterline armoured belt on her hull, which was backed by of teak. For added protection, Cerberus could take water into ballast tanks, decreasing her already low freeboard until only the turrets and breastwork were visible.

Cerberus and ships of her type were described by Admiral George Alexander Ballard as being like "full-armoured knights riding on donkeys, easy to avoid but bad to close with." Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, the editors of Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905, pointed out that "[Cerberus represents] the beginnings of practical turret ship design in Britain, having no sail power and being fitted with fore and aft turrets with almost uninterrupted arcs of fire."

The monitor was constructed by Palmers Shipbuilding at their Jarrow-on-Tyne shipyard. Cerberus cost £117,556 to build, with the British Admiralty meeting 80% of the cost. For the journey, the sides of the hull were built up to the height of the breastwork and along the length of the ship, to improve seakeeping. She first attempted to sail from Chatham for Melbourne on 29 October 1870, but returned within days because of gale conditions, which made the ship uncontrollable. These were the only personnel from the ship to be killed during her operational history. They arrived on 14 December, two days after the flooding, but could not assist because incorrectly fitting dive suits had been sent with them, and only of air hose was available, despite the miners being at least from the mine's entrance.

thumb|right|Artist's impression of Cerberus and the training ship [[HMS Nelson (1814)|HMVS Nelson]]

The ship was fitted with torpedo netting and spars in 1887. At some point in the 1890s, Cerberus was retasked as a storeship. Consequently, all of Cerberus personnel were quarantined at Point Nepean. She was used as a guard ship and munitions storeship during World War I. By 1914, the monitor's main guns were inoperable, and she was reliant on her light weapons for defence.

Following the transfer of six J class submarines to the RAN, Cerberus was renamed HMAS Platypus II on 1 April 1921 (taking her name from the submarine tender ) and reclassified as a secondary submarine tender. Between this date and the monitor's departure from service in 1924, took the name Cerberus and was attached to the training base at Western Port Bay; the base in turn took the name in 1921.

Decommissioning and fate

Cerberus was sold to the Melbourne Salvage Company for £409 on 23 April 1924, with the buyer to break her up for scrap. The monitor was scuttled on 26 September 1926 at Half Moon Bay to serve as a breakwater for the Black Rock Yacht Club. During her life, Cerberus never left Port Philip Bay, and never fired in anger.

The wreck sits in approximately of water, less than from shore. The ship was penetrable from many openings along both sides, and featured two submerged deck levels with heavy silting. With care and lights, it was possible to travel from stem to stern without leaving the ship. The interior of the ship has also seen use as a training course for assault swimmers. However, by 1983, the Trust had made little apparent progress.

In 1993, there was a major structural collapse after rusting deck supports and stanchions gave way, leaving only the deck beams to support the deck, turrets, and superstructure. Following this, a exclusion zone was placed around the wreck. After being coated with preservative and receiving an electrolysis treatment, the guns were placed on the seabed next to the wreck. To help attract funds from the Federal and Victorian governments, the wreck was nominated by Friends of the Cerberus and the National Trust for heritage listing, which was achieved on 14 December 2005; Cerberus was also listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and is included on the local Heritage Overlay. In July 2008, an application by Friends of the Cerberus for a grant of A$500,000 of federal funding was successful, with the National Trust of Victoria holding the funds on behalf of Friends of the Cerberus. The money was originally intended for the construction of a jacking frame and support cradle, but in late 2010, it was instead earmarked for structural preservation work on the monitor's gun turrets. By April 2012, the target of the funding had changed again, with plans to spend the grant on corrosion control of the wreck, along with "interpretive devices" on the nearby shore.

References

Books

  • The individual page can also be found here.

Journal and news articles

Press releases

Websites

Further reading

  • Friends of the Cerberus, a community organisation currently seeking to preserve the shipwreck