HMVS CERBERUS
No source identified for this photo.
SUNK IN HALF MOON BAY
Walking the shores of Port Phillip Bay in Covid 19 times when Melbourne is in lock-down you come across some onteresting history that might not under normal circumstances rate your attention.
The wreckage of what became HMAS Cerberus lies of the jetty in Half Moon Bay in Black Rock on Port Phillip Bay.
HMVS(Her Majesties Victorian Navy) Cerberus was a Breastwork Monitor, a warship built and designed in the US in 1861 and distinquished by the first rotating gun turret.The first Breastwork Monitors were built for the Royal Navy in 1863 -1870. Cerberus was completed in 1870 and arrived into Port Phillip Bay in 1871 where it remained to this day.The issue with the original Monitor's was the risk of being swamped so they builed a 'breast work"of some 2.1 Metre high around the vessel to prevent water entering.
It was renamed HMAS Cerberus in 1911 when the RAN was formed. By WW 1 the engines and armament were not oerable at the ship served as a munitions store and guard ship. It was renamed HMAS Platypus II in 1921 and operated as a submarine tender.In 1924 it was sold as scrap and sunk as a break water off Half Moon Bay. It collapsed in 1993 but some still remains.
No source identified for this photo which clams it was at dock in Willaimstown
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