HMVS Cerberus

Updated online history section at the Royal Australian Navy website here:
http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-cerberus-hmvs

The passing of the Colonial Naval Defence Act, 1865 empowered the Australian colonies to officially acquire warships and to raise and maintain seamen to serve in such vessels.

Of all the Australian colonies, Victoria put the most effort into her naval defences and in 1866 its colonial government applied to the British Government for assistance in establishing a naval force under the provisions of the 1865 Act. In reply to the request the Imperial Government agreed to assist with a grant of £100,000 towards the cost of a monitor turret ship and to donate, as a training ship, the old wooden man-o-war Nelson. The maintenance and manning of the new turret ship would be the responsibility of the Victorian Government, with assistance from the Royal Navy; however, she was to be placed at the disposal of the Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy’s Australia Station in the event of a war.

A general arrangement plan showing the layout of the monitor and her armament.

The ship’s design was comparatively new, the first of its type having emerged just five years earlier during the American Civil War in the form of USS Monitor, and was especially suited to the conditions likely to be encountered in Port Phillip Bay. She would be clad in iron armour up to eight inches thick and, by flooding her ballast tanks with up to 500 tons of water; the ship could lower herself three feet into the water so that only the breastwork and turrets remained on the surface. The design also featured a broad flat bottom, which did nothing to increase her sea-keeping capabilities.

Construction commenced on 1 September 1867 at the Palmer Shipbuilding & Iron Company shipyards at Jarrow-on-Tyne near Newcastle, England, and was completed two years later. The ship commissioned as Her Majesty’s Victorian Ship (HMVS) Cerberus, named after the three-headed hound in Greek and Roman mythology which guarded the gates to the Underworld.

Cerberus was steam powered and although not designed to have masts or sails, these were temporarily fitted to help conserve her coal supply on her maiden voyage to Australia. In her normal configuration, without the mass of rigging required for sails, her guns enjoyed a wide, unhampered firing arc.

Cerberus sailed from Chatham on 29 October 1870 under the Red Ensign and was manned by a crew of twenty-five merchant seamen under the command of Lieutenant William Henry Panter, RN. Panter had been serving in Australia aboard HMVS Nelson and had arrived in his native England in June to take command of the new monitor.

Captain WH Panter, RN the first commanding officer of HMVS Cerberus (State Library of Victoria Collection).

At the beginning of her long delivery voyage to Australia, Cerberus encountered heavy weather as she departed Chatham and was forced to seek shelter at Spithead, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, before continuing on to Plymouth, where most of the crew deserted. With a new crew of sixty-five embarked, the voyage resumed on 7 November. She encountered more heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay but made Gibraltar safely where still more of her crew deserted.  Between Gibraltar and Malta Cerberus encountered more favourable weather, and then endured searing heat as she steamed through the Red Sea. On 3 January 1871, the engineer recorded temperatures of 53ºC in the engine room and 61ºC in the stokehold.

After stopping at Aden for coal she continued on to Ceylon and Batavia before encountering cyclonic weather and strong headwinds. She coaled again at Fremantle during the final leg of the voyage where:

...the vessel created a great sensation, and every possible civility was offered by the Government. Governor Weld himself came on board and inspected the ship.

A stay of eight days in King George’s Sound, Albany, was spent taking on additional coal, cleaning and painting in preparation for the passage across the Great Australian Bight and her ultimate arrival at Melbourne.

On Sunday 9 April 1871, having spent 123 days en route, Cerberus arrived in Port Philip Bay. The Melbourne Age recorded:

…the circumstances of her voyage of five months and nine days have been watched with the deepest interest on both sides of the world. Captain Panter expected that it would be the end of April before the ardently hoped-for moment would come when he would drop his ‘mud hook’ off Williamstown; but his skill, together with comparatively favourable weather, has thus materially shortened the voyage.

She was first sighted off Cape Northumberland on Good Friday, but the telegraph offices were closed and it was not till Saturday that the public heard of a ‘turreted ship’ being seen off our coast. Later in that afternoon came the welcome news that the Cerberus had signalled the Cape Otway lighthouse, and yesterday morning she entered the Heads and steamed to her anchorage, which was the berth lately vacated by HM Corvette Blanche.

Cerberus following her arrival in Port Phillip Bay. (State Library of Victoria Collection):

As she came up she excited the greatest possible interest. As might be expected, she was not regarded as a handsome ship by any means. She appeared, as in great measure she is, a huge, long, square box, cut down straight at both ends, and surmounted by stunted masts, the tops of her turrets and her funnel. This is not the shape she will be when she is stripped of her surroundings. Then she will be a monitor, whose deck line will be 3 feet above the water, save in the centre, where the outline is broken by a breastwork of immense strength, above which are two cupolas and a pilot house, covered with the strongest armour plate. But now, this has been built over with iron bulwarks and a temporary upper deck to enable her to stand the voyage, and her outline is consequently of the ugliest.

The bay seemed all-alive as she entered Hobson’s Bay, and she was the centre of observation. The Russian man-of-war the Haydamack dipped ensign to her and Captain Koltovsky hurried on board Cerberus to pay his compliments to her commander. The boys of HMVS Nelson crowded into the rigging of their ship, and made the air ring again with peals of boyish cheers; and nearly every vessel in the bay hastened to pay the compliment of dipping colours.

Precisely at 1 o’clock the long-wished for moment arrived, and Captain Panter dropped his ‘mud hook’, and the event was immediately celebrated with the frothing of champagne by him and the few friends already onboard, amongst whom was Captain Payne, the chief harbour-master, who had boarded the Cerberus long before.

In the meantime a great multitude of boats, crowded with passengers, had put off from shore in hope of their being allowed on board. In this respect, Captain Panter did not think it right to disappoint the curious public, although the ship was not fit to be seen. He gave the required leave, and then started off to pay his respects to the Governor. During the whole of the afternoon the crowd of visitors increased greatly, and several thousands of visitors must have come on board and endeavoured to understand her construction and the working of the turrets.

Soon after her arrival, Cerberus was docked in the Alfred Graving Dock where her ocean-passage configuration was removed and her conversion to a monitor completed.

Cerberus in the Alfred Graving Dock. (State Library of Victoria)

The arrival of Cerberus in the Victorian colony saw it briefly possess the most powerful warship on the Australasian station and naturally enough the Victorians were keen to show off their new acquisition. With her merchant crew discharged and with a new crew of naval reservists embarked she began her first trials on Port Phillip Bay on 25 August 1871. It was soon discovered that Cerberus’ guns were too powerful to be fired close to shore following a raft of public protests concerning general damage suffered to windows from the percussive effects of her main armament.

Left: Sailors pose on the forward superstructure of Cerberus. Right: Officers gathered on the quarterdeck of Cerberus.

HMVS Cerberus berthed at Williamstown during the late 1800s.

During the 1870s, regular exercises were held with other Victorian naval ships, including the screw battleship, HMVS Nelson, torpedo boats, and the steam sloop Victoria. For more than 50 years, Cerberus was a familiar sight at Williamstown and in Port Phillip Bay where she spent her entire commission.

Cerberus ratings undertaking musket drill on Port Phillip Bay.

On 5 March 1881, Cerberus suffered her only casualties when a mine exploded in the water off Queenscliff during exercises, killing the ship’s gunner and five seamen.

(Courtesy State Library of Victoria)

Left: Cerberus Engineer Lieutenant W A Forsyth, circa 1899. Right: Signalman Andrew Currer of Richmond, Victoria posing with one of the ship"s petty officers, circa 1900.

Following Federation in 1901, the individual colonial navies were combined under one administration and became the Commonwealth Naval Forces, though the former colonial navies and their ships, including Cerberus, remained in their local ports. On 1 July 1911, the Commonwealth Naval Forces was formally granted the title Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Navy’s commissioned ships henceforth carried the prefix ‘HMAS’.

Throughout her commission Cerberus was confined to the waters of Port Phillip Bay.

A fine profile of Cerberus in her heyday.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914, HMAS Cerberus assumed the role of Port Guard Ship for the Port of Melbourne acting as a base for the naval dock guards and small craft patrolling the harbour.  She became a store for ammunition and explosives in the later stages of the war.

In 1921, Cerberus was moved from Williamstown to Geelong where, for the next two years, she acted as a submarine depot ship for the RAN’s flotilla of six J-class submarines. On 1 April 1921, her name was changed to HMAS Platypus (II).

In April 1924 she was sold as scrap to the Melbourne Salvage Co Pty Ltd, for the sum of £409, and she was towed back to Williamstown where she was stripped of all her valuable metals and useful fittings.

Cerberus being dismantled at Williamstown prior to be scuttled as a breakwater at Black Rock.

In 1926, the hull was purchased by the Sandringham Municipal Council, filled with concrete and, on 2 September of that year, was towed across Port Phillip Bay to be sunk at Black Rock, where she remains as a breakwater.

SUNK AT BLACKROCK. BREAKWATER FOR SMALL CRAFT.

The Argus September 3 1926

Yesterday morning the hulk of the old iron-clad Cerberus was towed from her berth at the Williamstown pier, where everything of value had been removed from her, and sunk off the Black Rock jetty to form a breakwater for the yachts and fishing boats. Although the ultimate fate of the Cerberus was decided some time ago, when the Black Rock Yacht Club purchased it for £150 and resold it for the same amount to the muncipal council under agreement that it should be used as a breakwater. the date of the final move was indefinite. This was because the vice-president of the Marine Board (Mr George Kermode), under whose direction the vessel was sunk, did not wish to carry out the somewhat difficult task until the opportunity afforded by the perfect weather conditions presented itself. For this reason the sight of the strange flotilla that appeared off Half Moon Bay shortly after 9 o"clock took residents somewhat by surprise. The word, however, was passed around swiftly, and soon the cliffs were thronged by interested spectators, who saw approaching the grey, squat hull, towed by the tugs Agnes and Minah, and preceded by the Plover and motor-boat to mark the mooring. By 10 o"clock what was left of the Cerberus had been towed and coaxed by the tugs to within 400 yards off the jetty, where her bow was made fast to the existing breakwater, and the stern was slowly swung into position and secured to a temporary mooring. The operation had been timed for high water, when there is a depth of 15ft on the bank selected for the breakwater, and it was estimated that the Cerberus was drawing nearly 14ft. Immediately the hull was made fast three seacocks were opened, and the flooding of the vessel began. Dingys put off from the jetty, and the harbour master"s motor-boat took off a large crowd of small boys who swarmed over the decks and down below to watch the rising water. The Cerberus sank almost imperceptibly, going down slightly by the stern. There was a large amount of scrap iron and odds and ends of useless gear, and visitors took away weighty bolts and nuts as souvenirs, after peeping into the turrets to inspect the heavy rusting guns.

The once proud Cerberus resting on the seabed at Black Rock. (http://foodinfocusblog.com/Food_in_Focus/Blog/Entries/2012/1/27_Melbourn...)

The name Cerberus is perpetuated in the RAN’s premier training establishment, HMAS Cerberus, situated at Westernport, Victoria. The present Cerberus has in its museum several heritage items from Cerberus (I) including the binnacle, ship"s bell, helm and searchlight.

The bell, binnacle and ship"s helm from Cerberus, now on display in the HMAS Cerberus Museum, Westernport, Victoria.

Victorian naval ratings onboard Cerberus, circa 1895.

Attack on the Williamstown Batteries

THE MONITOR CERBERUS ATTACKING THE WILLIAMSTOWN BATTERIES AND H.M.S. NELSON

Source: The Illustrated Australian News, 23 April 1872

The Attack by the Cerberus

The Williamstown division of the Naval Reserve went on board the Black Eagle at half-past nine a.m., and proceeded to the Sandridge Town River, where they joined the rest of the brigade.

The full strength of men and officers was 178, of whom 112 were detached to the Nelson, under the command of Captain Fullarton, while 70 men under the Lieuts. Steel, Elder and Surgeon Curtis joined the Cerberus, the crew of which numbered 129 all told, but there were on Monday, in addition, several of the Nelson boys on board. So soon as the men were at their posts the vessel left her moorings and proceeded under easy steam down the bay, all the men being kept under cover, and Captain Panter, who was in command, being stationed in the commander's box, so that not a soul was visible as the ship left the harbour. After proceeding some little distance the Cerberus went at full speed, which however did not exceed seven knots an hour, the two masts were struck, and were converted for the nonce into an apparatus for catching torpedoes, they being set out in front of the ship, and connected together by a spar 45 feet long, to which half a dozen grapnels were attached. By the time this work had been executed, the ship had gone some twelve miles from the lightship, in the direction of Portarlington. The men went to dinner, and the Cerberus commenced to retrace her course, her head being directed to the mouth of the Koroit Creek, about three miles west of the Williamstown lighthouse. Refreshments over, both with officers and men, preparations were made for action. The various coverings were fastened down, and the turrets were manned by the Naval Reserve, Lieut.Elder, with the Williamstown division, forming the crew of the fore, and Lieut, Steele with the Sandridge men, that of the after. Each cupola requires in addition to the captain of the turret who directs the gun, and the captain of each gun who is responsible for the elevation, a crew of ten, five to each gun. There were, therefore, besides the lieutenant in charge, thirteen men in each turret. Twelve were, in addition, required at each to work the guns in and out, eight for the magazine, and two powder monkeys. In actual warfare eight additional men would engage in serving shell.

CONDITION OF SHIP

On her trip down the bay the Cerberus had, owing to the foulness of her bottom, steered very badly, and Captain Panter therefore decided upon working his ship from the hurricane deck in order to avoid any risk of getting aground. In addition the commander, six men who were engaged in steering, were men exposed to the enemy's fire. One gun had become disabled during the drill on the previous Saturday owing to a trifling injury to one of the cogs in the wheels of the carriage. So that it had to be sponged from the outside. With these and some minor exceptions, the Cerberus was in the same condition that she would be in actual service. All the railings around the ship were let go, and everything made as snug as possible.

COMMENCEMENT OF ACTION

A few minutes before three o'clock, the Cerberus having gone as close in shore as she could with safety, two men being kept all the time in the chains heaving the lead, she steamed from the mouth of the Kororoit Creek towards Williamstown. At 3 p.m., a shot was fired from one of the Williamstown batteries, and immediately afterwards the Cerberus commenced to take the right centre, and lighthouse fortifications in flank. The enormous weight of her metal, her guns carrying 4 cwt. shell, and requiring 30lb of powder, enabled her to shell the shore defences with little or no risk to herself. Since none of them could do execution at more than 2000 yards, while the guns of the Cerberus could carry double that distance: beside which the embrasures of the Williamstown batteries did not cover the attacking ship, which had kept so far to the westward as to be completely outside the strip of sea commanded by the fortifications. After firing several shots, and then a broadside, the Cerberus steamed out of the reach of the fire from the Williamstown right and centre batteries, and then went up again to attack the Nelson. While doing this she was exposed to the fire of the Williamstown lighthouse battery, which kept up the ball manfully. The great feature of defence was, however, the Nelson; which, after firing at long distances the large one hundred and fifty pounders from her forecastle, kept up a very heavy discharge from her three decks, the gallant old ship being warped in such a manner as to keep her broadside to the Cerberus. She, on her part, went close in, raked her adversary fore and aft, and then steamed towards Sandridge shores, where she engaged the western battery, which has latterly been erected in the direction of Fisherman's Bend. This defence, and the three others on the same shore, viz, the lagoon, the central and the St Kilda right, blazed away at the Cerberus, which did not go close enough in to run much risk. At no time was she within 1500 yards from any Sandridge batteries, while to the western she was never nearer than 2000 yards. The Nelson, however, was not idle, for notwithstanding the heavy fire she had been sustaining for so long, she kept up a brisk discharge at the Cerberus long after that ship had gone clear away from Williamstown and was on the Sandridge side of the Bay.

FIRING RATE

At 3.30 p.m., after having fired 114 shots, 100 with 30 lb, of powder, and 14 with 40, the Cerberus went out of action and returned to her moorings, it not being thought prudent to go near the batteries in the direction of Emerald-hill, in consequence of the shoal water. There was no means of ascertaining what damage has been done to the defending force, but the attacking vessel had not gone through the engagement scathless, The concussion of the enormous guns had not only broken every pane of glass in the ship, but had actually started the iron work around the armor (sic) plating. A piece of iron 2½ inches, which fastened one of the boats' davits to the deck had been moved several inches by the wind of a gun, and the covering to the wardroom ventilator had been carried away, debris going on to the mess table, and demolishing the remains of the luncheon. Everything moveable had been completely destroyed, and all that in nautical parlance is styled gingerbread work had been shaken to atoms. The chart house had suffered very severely, the shutters were strewn on the deck, and the contents of the erection were everywhere but in their right place. The noise when the guns were fired was almost deafening, and, but for the precaution that some of the visitors had adopted at the suggestion of Dr. Curtis, of stopping their ears with cotton wool, their (sic) might have been permanent injury to there (sic) tympana. A man named John Gray, of the Williamstown division, while engaged to the fore battery sustained a contusion of the thigh while the guns were being run out, and one or two others received trifling injuries which did not necessitate the interference of the surgeon. The gunnary (sic) was remarkably well managed. It would be impossible to ascertain how the guns were served so far as direction and elevation were concerned, but there is no doubt of the rapidity of the fire. At one time during the engagement there was a shot from each cannon every minute and a half, and the men were working with great activity and smartness. Indeed, considering the comparatively rare occasions that they have of being drilled on board the Cerberus their proficiency was both creditable and remarkable. The ship stood the concussion very well indeed, her guns had never before fired over the bow and stern, so that her raking the Nelson as a parting shot was rather experimental, but no injury was done to any portion of her framework. The great advantage she has over the batteries, and even almost any other vessel afloat, is the ease with which she is manoeuvred - she turns in a little more than her length, almost as if she were on a pivot - and the distance at which her enormous guns will do deadly execution. After mooring the Cerberus the Black Eagle came off with the men who had been on board the Nelson, and the officers and men left the Cerberus with three cheers for Captain Panter.

THE NELSON

Captain Fullarton, together with Sub-Lieutenants Bland and Blomb, Surgeon McLean, and 110 men proceeded on board the Nelson shortly after 10 a.m. and, after exercising the crew at the main deck guns and getting their dinner, they ran out heavy warps and anchored so as to move the ship into such a position as to be able to fire a broadside into the Cerberus when she approached, and afterwards to shift position so as to continue the fire after the attacking ship had passed and was proceeding towards Sandridge. While the Cerberus was engaging the Williamstown batteries the Nelson fired her 150 pounders, and so soon as the Monitor got within range the 32 pounders on the main deck were manned, and a heavy fire was kept up, not only while the Cerberus was coming up, but long afterwards. While just abeam broadside were fired both from the main and lower decks 64 pounders. The total number of shots fired was 700. The guns were all manned by the Naval Reserve, the ship's boys being employed as powder-monkeys, and the ship's company kept hard at work in the magazine. Had he Nelson got under way the general effect would have been much heightened, and the old ship would have shown what she really could do. The men behaved admirably throughout, and the rapidity of their firing was beyond praise.

SANDRIDGE AND WILLIAMSTOWN

The steamer Gem, was busy all the forenoon in ferrying spectators over to Williamstown, where the attack would commence. Sandridge, like St Kilda and the whole intervening beach, was even more active than if the invasions had been actual Crowds assembled on the Railway and Town Piers, the vessel at the seaward ends being quite black with people, with hundreds of men and boys swarming up the masts and out along the bowsprits. Young Australians evinced their pluck by climbing right to the top masts and spreading on the highest yards. At little more than five minutes after two o'clock the first puff of white smoke was seen to rise from the other side of Williamstown and a boom came across the waters, indicating that the invading Cerberus was at hand. The cannonade thenceforward became brisk, as the Cerberus ran the gauntlet of the three Williamstown batteries, returning the fire of each. Then the old Nelson joined in, and altogether there was tremendous hurly burly of firing, so completely enveloping Williamstown in smoke as to render it invisible from Sandridge. The Gem, on her way across, had to steer for a time by bearings, for no Williamstown was in sight. Her voyagers smelt powder, for once in their lives, as strongly as if they were in the midst of a naval engagement. It was just like a fog all around , and the general opinion expressed was that powder smelt just like fog too. In a minute or two the shore batteries at Sandridge and Fisherman's Bend, towards the mouth of the Yarra, set to work. What the last named battery was blazing at formed a puzzle to everybody, unless it was the Russian man-of-war Isamroud, which lay beautifully in its line of fire, with the great white national flag, crossed by St Andrew's cross in blue flapping lazily at her mizen. Anyhow, the gunners could be seen as active as ants, hopping about round their cannons in the scrub, and every now and again sending out a puff. No doubt it was excellent practice. When the Cerberus had rounded the breakwater at Williamstown it was, of course, futile for the batteries there to waste any more powder, but the Nelson peppered away to the last, firing parting shots after the monater as it proceeded grimly on its way to silence the Sandridge battery. Hundreds of country folk were at Sandridge and Williamstown, who never saw the Cerberus before. Some called it the "building", others the "animal" but few could bring themselves to regard it as a ship. The Cerberus, by the way, has been new painted lately. She is now of a grey color all over, including the funnel. It was a fine spectacle to see her exchanging shots with the Sandridge battery. The explosions from her big guns are terrible, and the manner in which the smoke goes circling rapidly upon the surface of the ocean, as if unwinding itself, shows the force with which the charge is expelled. The sightseers had their fill truly.

Nordenfelt Gun

A very Happy New Year to one and all!

As the next instalment in my weaponry posts, here are some snaps I took of a 4 barrelled Nordenfelt gun I came across at the Tower of London recently.

The Business end - note this particular gun was captured from the Ottomans at Gallipoli 

The organ gun design of this weapon was patented in 1873 and ammunition was gravity fed from a hopper above the breach (see diagram below) and fired in volleys.   The Nordenfelt came in various calibers, many of them .45 small arms, but this particular version is the larger 1-inch model which fired solid shot (explosive shot being banned by treaty).  Primarily designed for torpedo boat defence, it also had an excellent capability to suppress shore targets.

This is how the two man crew operated with the gunner loading and firing while the gun captain aimed via the elevation and training hand wheels

And here is a deck mounted version in action - this pic was taken on the Australian monitor HMVS Cerberus

And if you want to go really mad for the Nordenfelt, here is a copy of the drill manual used by the Victorian Navy: Handbook of the 1" 4-barrel Nordenfelt gun, 1894

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More facts from the Old British Guns site here: http://oldbritishguns.com/the-nordenfelt-gun

The 19th Century saw a proliferation of hand operated machine guns, that was kicked off by the success of the Gatling Gun. In the beginning, the Nordenfelt  gun had 4 to 10 barrels operated by a crank on the right side, using back and forth motion as opposed to the Gatlings rotary handle. Invented and built by the Swedes, the British Navy adopted it in the 1870's, mainly in calibers as large as 25mm for use against the new torpedo boat threat. 

However, in rifle calibers, the gun can keep up a semblance of automatic fire by how quickly the handle is operated and the ammunition kept supplied. In a test by the British, the gun demonstrated 3000 rounds a minute with no stoppages. During the Sudan War in the 1880s, the Nordenfelt was mounted on General Gordons Nile riverboat fleet, to good effect. In the end the Maxim gun replaced this, as well as the Gatlings in British service, when the Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company was absorbed by Hiram Maxim in 1888. The Nordenfelt was fielded by the British navy to counter the new torpedo boats, which were quickly spreading to all navies in the late 1870's. A small fast steam powered boat loaded with torpedo's could take down a capital ship, and losing some of these cheap boats in the attempt would pose little loss for the user.  In the end, the defense against the torpedo boat became a new class of fast fighting ship, the destroyer.

The single barrel Nordenfelt gun. The more interesting of the Nordenfelt guns was one that was ignored by British military leaders. The small single barrel gun was only 13 or 14 pounds in weight, not much more than a Martini-Henry. This could have been the predecessor of the Bren gun or a squad fielded mobile machine gun. The navy thought of the rifle caliber Nordenfelt as a gun to sweep the decks of an enemy ship prior to boarding, which with the big guns of the time was highly unlikely anymore. The army only thought of the machine gun as a defense for their artillery, or just an adjunct to the infantry in fending off human wave attacks. If the British military had been forward thinking, this could have advanced tactics by at least 40 years.

Canals of Mars

Some lovely 2mm VSF stuff here, including some Aeronef battles to control a Martian vital canal junction. 

Warsips also ply warily along said canals, including the venerable HMVS CERBERUS which has been 'painted in Games Workshop Fortress Gray, washed with black ink and dry brushed with white for the hull; and, GW Dheneb Stone, washed with brown ink, for the deck.'

Lots of lovely LI modelling action there too.  Check it all out at:
http://onemoregamingproject.blogspot.com/search/label/2mm

The Defence of Melbourne

Real documentation for the defensive plans for the colony of Melbourne (against those dastardly Russians most likely!), including the layered use of shore batteries, coastal forts, minefields and the local flotilla (including the HMVS Cerberus).

http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j35/kitson.asp

Note too the potential use of scouting dirigibles!

Tis a week to be Published!

Hot on the heels of the release Aeronef over the Aegean, I received my copy of Ragnarok 56 today. And a cracking read it is BTW!

In there in the "Melting Pot" section (for miniatures reviews) was a review I did of Brigade Model's HMVS Cerberus which I put together last year and frankly forgotten about! So my first modest written contibution to SFSFW has been published (I have had a picture in there before)- open the Gin!

BTW - one of the two surviving Guns from Cerberus lies less than a km from my new house!

Cerberus in 1/1200

Inspired by my research into the real ship, I broke out my long neglected 1/1200 scale Cerberus by Brigade Models, and a lovely casting it is too.

The model comes in 5 separate parts: hull, 2 main turrets, breastwork superstructure and mast. All part were very crisply cast with no flash at all. All fit together nicely with no filler required. One particularly good feature is that the breastwork structure fits over the turrets, which in tun have a peg and hole fitting. This means that they the turrets can be painted and fitted without gluing, so they can rotate freely.


I painted the model prior to assembly, undercoating in white. I went for a traditional RN paint scheme, and as accurate to the real ship as possible. The hull was therefore black, the armour, superstructrue and deck fittings white, gun muzzles dark grey, mast and funnel ocre and the deck a faded wood colour. Finally, I added a RN White Ensign to the masthead (again by Brigade) and fitted her to a base in the style of Mssr Ogrefencer (name and flag yet to be fitted). A smallish wake befits a vessel of 10kts max speed - no big bow waves for Cerberus! Then again, nobody should ever rush a lady...

This model represents Cerberus as she appeared in the late 1880s, after her mast reconfiguration (in 1878) and the addition of the torpedo spars and nets (in 1887). I must admit that as a result of my research this became more of a modelling project than a wargaming one, but the overall effect is quite realistic I think and I'm looking forward to her first tabletop battle.

Ironic then that my first Aquanef fleet unit is a surface unit! There are also 4 Russian units about half done and I just found some Navwar 1/1200 ACW ships (again courtesy of Mssr Ogrefencer, thank you Sir!) which will be joining us soon...

HMVS CERBERUS

I just picked up a lovely monograph on this wonderful piece of colonial naval history:

'HMVS Cerberus: Battleship to Breakwater.'

Built at the cost of 125,000 pounds (of which the British Government donated 100,000 pounds). She was laid down in 1867, completed in 1870 and delivered (after a perilous journey) the following year. She was ordered to protect Melbourne, one of the Empire's richest colonies at the time due to the gold rush, from the Russian threat. Not an inconsequential threat it turns out, as Russia was allied to the United States during the civil war and the Russian Pacific Fleet commander had sealed orders to bombard Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart should hostilities break out between the US and Great Britain.

The monitor was the first British armoured ship to fully dispense with sail and be powered purely by steam. She was also first vessel with a central superstructure with gun turrets at the ends, and the first design to have breastwork protection and low freeboard. She had two sister ships, Abyssinia and Magdala, built for service in India though they were completed later.

Gunnery drills on the uppder-deck: 2 quad barrelled Nordenfeldts and a QF 4pdr

HMS Devastation (1871), built 3 years after Cerberus, incorporated many lessons learnt from Cerberus can rightly claim credit as being the first ocean going modern battleship. (Whereas Cerberus was specifically designed for Harbour defence)

"Indeed Devastation itself was an enlarged version of the coast defence Breastwork Monitor Cerberus, whose construction marked the beginning of practical turret ship design" Birth of the Battleship, John Beeler, US Naval Institute Press, 2001

"Between the harbour defence ship and the sea-going battleship was a matter of degree - the Devastation was to develop out of Cerberus in due course." British Battleships, Oscar Parkes, Seeley Service & Co., London, 1957

She was a powerful warship equipped with two twin 10 inch gun turrets (muzzle loading, rifled Armstrong guns), 4 quad barreled Nordenfeldt machine guns and 2 six pounder guns (added in 1892/93). Armour plate ranged from 6 inches on the sides to 10 inches on the turrets. She was not initially provided with any protection against torpedoes, but outriggers and nets were later fitted for this purpose.


The local press commented upon her arrival that "Victorians can sleep peacefully upon their pillows, with the consciousness that Cerberus is in every way fit to fight their battles and to fight them in modern style".

Cerberus enjoyed a period of 53 years service in which she never fired a shot in anger. Ironic then that her guns caused such general collateral damage to windows that public protest effectively negated the conduct of firing practices close to shore!


A free 1/250 scale card model of Cerberus as she appeared in the 1890s (with mast modification and torpedo booms fitted) is available here:

http://www.cerberus.com.au/store/model_paper.html

In the meantime, I'm working on my lovely 1/1200 scale Cerberus from Brigade Models: pics soon!

HMVS CERBERUS rescue efforts

You may recall a previous post about the HMVS CERBERUS, possibly the world's first real battleship whose rusting hulk lies off the coast of Victoria today.
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2007/01/hmvs-cerberus.html

For years the wreck has been slowly collapsing under its own weight.
But great news: Efforts are now underway to save the wreck - Huzzah!


On 25 July 2008, Heritage Minister the Hon. Peter Garrett announced $500,000 in Federal funding for the National Trust of Australia as a first step towards stabilising the HMVS Cerberus shipwreck.

The Minister announced the funding during a visit to the wreck, which sits as a breakwater a few hundred metres off the beach at Melbourne's Half Moon Bay, Black Rock.

Work on this project began in 2004 with a Heritage Victoria grant to move 18-tonne guns. The next phase involves building an overhead jacking frame and an underwater supporting platform. This funding will help the National Trust to advance this project.

For further information about HMVS Cerberus visit: www.nattrust.com.au/trust_register/search_the_register/hmvs_cerberus or www.cerberus.com.au

The CERBERUS wreck off Melbourne