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HMVS ''Cerberus'' (Her Majesty's Victorian Ship) is a breastwork monitor that served in the Victoria Naval Forces, the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF), and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1871 and 1924. Built for the colony of Victoria under the supervision of Charles Pasley, ''Cerberus'' was completed in 1870, and arrived in Port Phillip in 1871, where she spent the rest of her career. The monitor was absorbed into the CNF following Federation in 1901, and was renamed HMAS ''Cerberus'' when the navy became the RAN in 1911. By World War I, ''Cerberus'' weapons and boilers were inoperable; the ship was retasked as a guardship and munitions store, while carrying the personnel of the fledgling Royal Australian Naval College on her paybooks. In 1921, the ship was renamed HMAS ''Platypus II'', and tasked as a submarine tender for the RAN's six J class submarines. In 1924, the monitor was sold for scrap, and was sunk as a breakwater off Half Moon Bay. The wreck became a popular site for scuba diving and picnics over the years, but there was a structural collapse in 1993. There have been several campaigns to preserve the ship (one of which is ongoing), as she is one of the last monitors, the only surviving ship of the Australian colonial navies, and one of only two surviving ships in the world with Coles turrets.〔Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', p. 279-80〕〔 ==Design== Named for Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of Hades from Greek mythology, ''Cerberus'' was the first of the 'breastwork monitors', which differed from previous ironclad warships by the fitting of a central superstructure containing rotating turrets.〔Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', p. 277〕〔 The ship was designed by Edward James Reed, Chief Constructor to the Royal Navy.〔 ''Cerberus'' had one sister ship, , and an additional five ships of similar design ( and the four ''Cyclops'' class monitors) were constructed for coastal defence around the British Empire.〔Paine, ''Warships of the World to 1900'', p. 33〕〔Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', p. 279〕 These seven vessels were unofficially referred to as the 'Monster class'.〔 The monitor was long, wide, and with a draught of .〔 ''Cerberus'' had a freeboard of , while her breastwork extended above the deck, and was long.〔Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', pp. 23-4〕 She had a standard ship's company of 12 officers and 84 sailors, with an additional 40 to man the ship in wartime.〔 ''Cerberus'' had a maximum speed of , with an economical speed of .〔 Her twin screws were driven by two horizontal twin-cylinder, double-acting, simple steam engines〔Ballard, ''The Black Battlefleet'', pp. 218, 248〕 made by Maudslay Son & Field.〔 They had bore, stroke, and were provided with 〔Ballard, ''The Black Battlefleet'', p. 248〕 steam produced by five coal-fired boilers with 13 furnaces. The steam engines generated on trials and drove two propellers with a diameter of 〔Ballard, ''The Black Battlefleet'', pp. 248–49〕 ''Cerberus'' was the first British warship to be solely steam-powered.〔 The monitor had a bunkerage of 240 tons of coal; this would last just under five days at maximum speed (50 tons consumed per day), and ten days at economical speed (24 tons per day).〔 The monitor was not suited to ocean travel.〔 The main armament was four 10-inch guns, mounted in two turrets.〔 The four guns weighed each, were muzzle-loaded, had to be withdrawn completely inside the turret to be reloaded, and could fire a shell up to once every three minutes.〔Stevens, ''The Royal Australian Navy'', p. 16〕 The turrets were mounted fore and aft; each had a crew of 33, had a 270° field of fire, and had to be hand-cranked into position.〔 The turrets were of a design created by Cowper Phipps Coles.〔Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', pp. 280-81〕 The ship had armour plating ranging from in thickness for the waterline armoured belt on her hull, which was backed by of teak.〔 The citadel armour protecting the breastwork ranged in thickness from , and gun turrets had faces and sides.〔 ''Cerberus'' was protected by an armored deck that was thick.〔Gardiner, Chesneau, & Kolesnik, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships'' p. 21〕〔Gould, ''Archaeology and the social history of ships'', pp. 278-79〕 For added protection, ''Cerberus'' could take water into ballast tanks, decreasing her already low freeboard until only the turrets and breastwork were visible.〔〔Paine, ''Warships of the World to 1900'', p. 34〕 ''Cerberus'' and ships of her type were described by Admiral George Alexander Ballard as being like "full-armoured knights riding on donkeys, easy to avoid but bad to close with."〔Ballard, ''The Black Battlefleet'', p. 219〕 Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, the editors of ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905'', pointed out that "(represents ) the beginnings of practical turret ship design in Britain, having no sail power and being fitted with fore and aft turrets with almost uninterrupted arcs of fire."〔 When she entered service, the monitor was considered superior to any other warship operating in the Australasian region.〔 The design of ''Cerberus'' was a major influence on battleship design until the early 1900s, when made all pre-dreadnought battleship designs obsolete.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMVS Cerberus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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