HMVS Cerberus

HMVS Cerberus was a British monitor of the same-named class, launched in 1868 and intended for the coastal defense of the Australian colony of Victoria. In the years after the Crimean War, when Australia and New Zealand feared a Russian attack, the ship served primarily to protect the capital, Melbourne. Its name derives from Cerberus, the mythical three-headed hound of Hades. As one of the first larger British warships, Cerberus was revolutionary: it was powered entirely by steam and had no masts or rigging. This design made it possible to house the heavy armament in two armored, rotating twin turrets. The plans came from Edward James Reed, chief constructor of the Royal Navy, and the ship was built by the Palmer Shipbuilding & Iron Co. shipyard on the Tyne.

For the long voyage to Australia, the ship was fitted at Chatham Dockyard with a temporary upper deck, raised sides, and three masts for sails to improve its seaworthiness. Under the command of Lieutenant Panter, Cerberus traveled through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean, taking on coal at regular intervals in ports such as Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, and Galle. Because of the limited range of steam engines at the time and the ship's flat hull, the journey was demanding, but the vessel reached Melbourne safely on April 9, 1871. There it patrolled Port Phillip Bay for years, and in 1901 it was incorporated into the forces of the newly founded Commonwealth. Later it served as a floating ammunition store and, under the name Platypus II, was used as a depot for supplies for Australia's submarines.

After the submarine unit was disbanded, the ship was sold for scrapping in 1924. Some armor plates were removed before the hull passed to local authorities in 1926 to serve as a breakwater. On September 2, 1926, Cerberus was sunk in three meters of water in Half Moon Bay off Black Rock. The wreck still lies there today, but it is badly rusted and in poor condition. After a severe storm in 1993 destroyed load-bearing parts of the hull, the initiative "Friends of the Cerberus" was founded to work toward stabilizing the wreck. The organization is hoping for donations and government funding to preserve one of the last surviving ships of this type.