HMVS Cerberus

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 SW 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 sunk 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.Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', pp. 279–80

Design

Named for Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of Hades from Greek mythology, ''Cerberus'' was the first of the breastwork monitors, which differed from previous ironclad warships by the fitting of a central superstructure containing rotating turrets.Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', p. 277 The ship was designed by Edward James Reed, Chief Constructor to the Royal Navy. ''Cerberus'' had one sister ship, , and an additional five ships of similar design ( and the four ''Cyclops'' class monitors) were constructed for coastal defence around the British Empire.Paine, ''Warships of the World to 1900'', p. 33Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', p. 279 These seven vessels were unofficially referred to as the 'Monster class'.

The monitor was long, wide, and with a draught of . ''Cerberus'' had a freeboard of , while her breastwork extended above the deck, and was long. She had a standard ship's company of 12 officers and 84 sailors, with an additional 40 to man the ship in wartime. ''Cerberus'' had a maximum speed of , with an economical speed of .

Her twin screws were driven by two horizontal twin-cylinder, double-acting, simple steam engines made by Maudslay Son & Field. They had bore, stroke, and were provided with 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 monitor had a bunkerage of 240 tons of coal; this would last just under five days at maximum speed (50 tons consumed per day), and ten days at economical speed (24 tons per day). The monitor was not suited to ocean travel.

The main armament was four 10-inch guns, mounted in two turrets. The four guns weighed each, were muzzle-loaded, had to be withdrawn completely inside the turret to be reloaded, and could fire a shell up to once every three minutes.Stevens, ''The Royal Australian Navy'', p. 16 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 turrets were of a design created by Cowper Phipps Coles.Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', pp. 280-81

The ship had armour plating ranging from in thickness for the waterline armoured belt on her hull, which was backed by of teak. The citadel armour protecting the breastwork ranged in thickness from , and gun turrets had faces and sides. ''Cerberus'' was protected by an armored deck that was thick.Gardiner, Chesneau, & Kolesnik, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships'' p. 21Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', pp. 278-79 For added protection, ''Cerberus'' could take water into ballast tanks, decreasing her already low freeboard until only the turrets and breastwork were visible.Paine, ''Warships of the World to 1900'', p. 34

''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'' representsthe 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." When she entered service, the monitor was considered superior to any other warship operating in the Australasian region. The design of ''Cerberus'' was upscaled by Sir Edward Reed for in 1871, the first Royal Navy turreted ironclad battleship without sails, and so had a lasting influence on battleship design until the dreadnoughts appeared in the early 1900s.

Construction

In 1866, the Victorian government ordered a ship to supplement the shore-based fortifications of Port Philip Bay, and to defend the colony in the event of a Russian attack. ''Cerberus'' was ordered on the understanding that if she operated in any role other than the defence of Victoria, she would revert to Admiralty control.Gillett, ''Warships of Australia'', p. 22

The monitor was constructed by Palmers Shipbuilding at their Jarrow-on-Tyne shipyard. She was laid down on 1 August 1867, launched on 2 December 1868, and completed in August 1870.Gillett, ''Warships of Australia'', p. 113 ''Cerberus'' cost £117,556 to build, with the British Admiralty meeting 80% of the cost.

Operational history

On completion, ''Cerberus'' was registered as a merchant vessel for the voyage to Australia.Gillett, ''Warships of Australia'', p. 23 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.Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 24 She first attempted to sail from Chatham for Melbourne on 29 October 1870, but returned within days because of gale; this was to provide redundancy to the steam engines, and maximise her range before recoaling was required. ''Cerberus'' departed for a second time on 7 November, and despite similar conditions, was able to persevere. The ship travelled via the Suez Canal (during which she flew the flag of Victoria instead of the Red Ensign so reduced transit rates for warships could be claimed), with frequent stops to refuel wherever possible because of her ten-day bunker capacity. Her flat bottom and shallow draught meant that the monitor could roll up to 40° from the centreline in bad weather. Her ship's company nearly mutinied on several occasions.

The monitor reached Melbourne on the morning of 9 April 1871. Following her arrival, she was designated flagship of the Victorian Navy. At the time of her arrival, public opinion of the ship was low, and she quickly attracted the nickname of 'Floating Gasometer'.

On 5 March 1881, five men from ''Cerberus'' were killed when their boat was destroyed by a mine during exercises. These were the only personnel from the ship to be killed during her operational history. Following the flooding of the New Australasian Gold Mine at Creswick, Victoria in December 1882, two divers from ''Cerberus'' were sent to help find miners trapped in air pockets deep in the mine. 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.

The ship was fitted with torpedo netting and spars in 1887. At some point in the 1890s, ''Cerberus'' was retasked as a storeship. In May 1900, one of the ship's company began to show the symptoms of the bubonic plague.Laws & Stewart, ''It doesn't end there'', p. 296 Consequently, all of ''Cerberus'' personnel were quarantined at Point Nepean.

Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, ''Cerberus'', like all other colonial naval ships, was transferred to the Commonwealth Naval Forces. This organisation was renamed the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, at which point, ''Cerberus'' was given the prefix HMAS. By 1909, ''Cerberus'' could not generate enough steam to propel herself. She was used as a guard ship and munitions storeship during World War I. When the Royal Australian Naval College was founded in 1913, its personnel were initially listed on the paybooks of ''Cerberus'', as the college was not a commissioned establishment. By 1914, the monitor's main guns were inoperable, and she was reliant on her light weapons for defence.Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Warships, 1914-1945'', p. 55

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. For this role, she was towed to Geelong.Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 25 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 warship was towed from Corio Bay to Williamstown Naval Dockyard on 14 May for disassembly. After the salvage company removed what they could, she was then sold on to the Sandringham council for £150.Heritage Division, ''Australia's National Heritage'', p. 21 The monitor was scuttled on 26 September 1926 at Half Moon Bay to serve as a breakwater for the Black Rock Yacht Club.Quarstein, ''A history of ironclads'', p. 234 During her life, ''Cerberus'' never left Port Philip Bay, and never fired in anger

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