HMVS Cerberus

HMVS Cerberus was an ironclad warship launched in 1868 to defend the Australian colony of Victoria. The vessel was named after the three-headed mythical dog which guarded the entrance to Hades.

She 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 Edward Reed, she was one of seven similar vessels. The ship was built by Palmer Shipbuilding & Iron Co. shipyard on the River Tyne, England and launched on December 2 1868 and completed in September 1870.

Her twin screws were driven by two horizontal twin cylinder double-acting simple steam engines made by Maudlsey and Company. They had 43 inch (1.1 m) bore, 27 feet (8.2 m) stroke and were provided with 30 lb/in² (207 kPa) steam produced by four coal fired boilers.

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 meant that she rolled badly in the rough weather that she encountered. She arrived at Melbourne on April 9 1871.

Cerberus was made the flagship of 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, and then into the Royal Australian Navy when it was founded 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 for a while as a supply store for Australia's J class submarine fleet. The name HMAS Cerberus was reused for a new naval base at Flinders.

In 1924 she was finally sold for scrap to the Melbourne Salvage Co Pty. Ltd for 409 pounds. Some of the plates were disposed of before the remainder of the ship was sold in 1926 for use as a breakwater, and she was sunk on September 2 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.

In 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, but none have been pursued.

• Length: 225 ft (69 m)
• Beam: 45 feet (13.7 m)
• Draught: 16.5 feet (5 m)
• Displacement: 3,340 tons
• Armament: 4 x 10 inch (254 mm) rifled muzzle loading guns firing 400 lb (181 kg) shells
• Machinery: Two coal fired double acting horizontal Maudsley engines, twin screws, total 1370 ihp (1022 kW) = 12.4 knots (23 km/h)
• Armour: turrets - 9 to 10 inches (230 to 255 mm), breastwork - 8 to 9 inches (203 to 229 mm), sides - 6 to 8 inches (152 to 203 mm), all with 9 to 11 inches (229 to 279 mm) teak backing; decks 1 to 1.5 inches (25 to 37 mm) with 10 inch (254 mm) teak backing.

External links

• Friends of the Cerberus (http://www.cerberus.com.au)