HMVS Cerberus

Since everyone is going a bit potty over ships and boats of late I thought I'd post some information about one of my locals, the HMVS (later HMAS) Cerberus.




1- Launched in 1868, Cerberus is the only remaining Monitor (the first generation of modern battleships) left in the world.

2- Preceding HMS Devastation by almost three years, Cerberus was the first British warship to dispense completely with sail power and to incorporate the shallow draft.

3- Cerberus was the first, and is the only remaining example, of a Monitor having a central superstructure.

4- The design for Cerberus was the first in the world to incorporate the combination of a central superstructure with fore and aft gun turrets.

5- Cerberus is the only substantially intact surviving warship of any of Australia's pre-Federation colonial navies.

6- Cerberus was the flagship and most powerful warship of the Victorian Navy. In addition she was the most powerful warship of any of the Australian Colonial Navies and was the first armoured warship built for Australia.

The ship was scuttled in 1926 to form a breakwater in Half Moon Bay. There it sat as a fishing point and later diving spot until 1993 when decades of rust caught up with it and it suffered a partial collapse.



There is an active movement to have the ship salvaged and ultimately restored.

More information can be found at Friends of the Cerberus