The ''Cerberus''-class breastwork monitor was a pair of
breastwork monitor
A breastwork monitor was a modification of the monitor, a warship which was first built in the United States in 1861, designed by John Ericsson and distinguished by the first rotating gun turret, designed by Theodore Timby. The modified desig ...
s built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in the 1860s.
Design
Also referred to as "
ironclads" and "
turret ship
Turret ships were a 19th-century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement.
Background
Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th centur ...
s", the ships of the ''Cerberus'' class were designed by
Sir Edward Reed following requests by several dominions and colonies of the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
for warships to be used as
coastal defence ship
Coastal defence ships (sometimes called coastal battleships or coast defence ships) were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrifi ...
s. The class consisted of two ships: , which was operated by the
colony of Victoria
The Colony of Victoria was a historical administrative division in Australia that existed from 1851 until 1901, when it federated with other colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the southeastern corner of the Australian ...
, and , which spent her life operating in
Bombay Harbour.
The size of the ships was limited by cost. They were designed and built to be used as local defence ships, and it was not expected that they would ever need to be deployed far away from their bases. It was therefore possible to design them without sails or rigging and dependent only upon their engines, with a resulting limitation in their effective range.
The absence of masts and rigging allowed more weight to be worked into the ship's armour. This also meant it was possible to arm the ships with two
gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...
s, one fore and one aft, which had wholly unobstructed
fields of fire over the bow and stern, and on wide arcs amidships. The turrets were mounted on the upper deck and hence had a greater height above water and a correspondingly greater command than guns mounted on the main deck. The turret armament provided an additional advantage of allowing the ships to have a low freeboard. This increased the steadiness of the ship and allowed the hull armour to be applied more thickly over a more limited height of exposed hull.
Construction
Ships
*
HMVS ''Cerberus''- harbour defence vessel at Melbourne, Australia
* – harbour defence vessel at Bombay, India
See also
* – harbour defence vessel at Bombay, India, built to a similar, but smaller, design.
Citations
Bibliography
*
* Brown, D.K., ''Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860–1906'',
*
*
*
*
*
{{British ironclads
Monitor classes