HMVS Cerberus - Guide 232

HMVS Cerberus, a unique ironclad of the Victorian Navy and later the Australian Navy, is today's subject.

Read more about the ship here:

Next on the list:
USS Minneapolis, CA-36
USS Long Beach
HMS Sovereign of the Seas
SS Great Eastern
PT Boats
Z Class
Cleveland class
SM U-156
Boston class
Des Moines Heavy cruisers.
Hydra Class Ironclads
Audacious class CV's
Malta class
Hunt class
Tennessee-class cruiser
The Merrimack and Mersey class of frigates
Henri IV
USS Marblehead
Pinguin
German Auxiliary Cruiser Atlantis
Project 24 Sovetsky Soyuz class Battleship
HMS Caroline
Ships of Battle of Campeche

[Ciborium]

Drach: "And she was sold for scrap."
Me: [expecting to hear "that's it for this video"]
Drach: "But her story doesn't end here."
Me: Wait, what?

[aussietaipan]

Thanks Drach, excellent video. As a Melbourne born and bred fella, as a young kid used to swim out to Cerberus with my mates and use the rear turret as a diving platform. I never knew the history of this boat so great work. This should be shown in local schools history lessons. She is a break water at Half Moon Bay off Black Rock Melbourne Victoria.

[davidallen]

Raising the Cerberus is regularly called for during slow news periods but she still sits in Port Phillip Bay near the Blackrock pier.

[Deevo]

Ha, you got me there, I'd never heard of HMVS before.

[sawyerawr]

I know its a hopeless dream...but I can't shake the love for the idea that, someday, HMVS Cerberus could rise above the waves once more. It'll never happen, but I a man can dream.

[lmorandini]

I walked on her deck a couple times, and I can attest the teak backing the turret armour is still there, more than 150 years after building. The turret armour has an additional internal iron layer (one inch or so), to prevent the teak layer from splintering I suppose. The hull is a collapsed shambles of beams and plates (one diver died trapped there a few years back), but she is still upright.

[Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Holy hell, making a Monitor cross oceans. Absolute madlads

[mariuspontmercy]

Kudos to Drach for reviewing a ship I can see (or at least see what's left of it) in my home town

[doughart]

Thanks Drach. The Cerberus is quite close to my home so it's really great to see this. Thank you.

[darzb]

Thank you Drach. As we drove past HMVS Cerberus last week my wife asked me about it.
I may not have remembered the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry captains spiel correctly... in the advent of a hostile fleet sailing thru the Port Philip heads Cerberus was to take up position in the man made reef " popes eye" in the middle of the gap to fill to arch of fire deficit from Fort Nepean guns on one side and Fort Queenscliffs guns on the other.
You can also still see on google earth the remains of a submarine beached on the Queenscliff side.

[jerichomx]

Awesome to see Australia getting some more love. Even if technically this was before Australia was it's own country.

[herbertvonsauerkrautunterh]

I had a look at the wreck several times when I was a cook in the main galley at HMAS Cerberus the depot.. pretty cool. Would have been good if it was kept as a museum ship

[colinb]

Melbourne is, of course, at the northern end of Port Phillip Bay, a large enclosed shallow bay. The Cerberus was designed not to go beyond the Portsea/ Queenscliff heads, which had forts protecting them. The conditions inside the bay would rarely, if ever, see waves large enough to trouble a vessel with even the minimal freeboard of the Cerberus. Victoria was the worlds leading producer of gold at the time, and had both the money and the incentive to invest in a bit of port protection. The opening shots of both World Wars were fired by the twin forts mere hours after the declaration of war, in both cases to prevent German freighters from fleeing the port.
The name HMAS Cerberus lives on as the name of the RAN training base, located near Hastings, about an hours drive southeast of Melbourne, on Westernport Bay. Fort Queenscliff is still in use for administration purposes, as well as being open for tourists as a museum.

[stephenbeucler]

That is one of the best looking and layed-out ironclad-monitors I have ever seen. I like it!

[robertbennett]

Prompted me to check it out on Google Earth...and there it is, clear as day. Fantastic...Thx Drach

[kevinmccarthy]

Good morning from sunny Mexico. The show about the HMVS Cerberus was written absolutely beautiful. The last little eulogy was especially well written. Kevin.

[frankholden]

The ship in the background at 4:04 is HMVS Nelson ex HMS Nelson dating from 1814. She lasted in one form or another until 1920. Various artifacts from her can still be seen at Williamstown.
Melbourne was at the time the richest city in the British Empire - the jewel in Queen Victoria's crown - and the perceived threat to the colony of Victoria at the time was from the Russians.
This also led to the heavy fortification of the entrance to Port Phillip both ashore and on two artificial islands, the South Channel Fort and the uncompleted Popes Eye. Worth a story in their own right.

[stephenrickstrew]

The mythical hound from hell is still guarding the underworld ... underwater world 🌎

[DanielBray]

Thanks Drach. Your Melbournian fans really appreciate this one.

[FEStanley]

Thank you for featuring the Cerberus, the last surviving warship from my several times great grandfathers yard. I suspect a lot of the iron came from his mines and Ironworks too!