For the endless waves of the prairie
For the endless prairie of the waters, For the empire of all empires, For a map that grows in breadth.
(Rudyard Kipling. "By Right of Birth")
By the name of the three-headed dog …
And it so happened that the British Admiralty already in the middle of the 19th century drew attention to the growing power of the American and Russian fleets and considered that sooner or later it would have to defend its overseas possessions and, first of all, the shores of distant Australia, and for this it needed … modern ships. No, England had a fleet, and a very solid fleet. To the envy of so many. But the whole point was that it consisted of armored ships, none of them was so powerful as to instill fear in the enemy with just its appearance. In addition, it was required to protect the approaches to the entrance to the bay, on the shore of which Melbourne was located, which required not an armored sailing-steam frigate, but a low-board monitor in the manner of the American.
This is all that remains of Cerberus (2007)
And it was then that the state treasurer George Verdon was able to obtain permission from Her Majesty's government and the British parliament to build a fundamentally new armored vessel of the "monitor" class, and not with one, but with two gun turrets, with two 22-ton guns, covered with a very thick armor. A private shipyard was chosen as the builder, but the Admiralty was to supervise the work. The total cost of the project was estimated at 125 thousand pounds, but at the same time it was decided that part of the money was paid by the metropolis, but part should come from Australia, since the ship was supposed to serve there.
The ship received the sonorous name "Cerberus" - after the mythical three-headed dog, and became the first barbette monitor (from the French expression en barbette, that is, firing from field guns through the parapet, that is, a protective wall, and not through the embrasure, which was built in Great Britain at the very beginning of the 1870s of the 19th century. The task for the development of the project of the new ship was received by the chief designer of the British fleet E. Reed, who eventually managed to create a ship that became a role model for many shipbuilders in various countries.
Looking back at the experience of American monitors …
Note that by the time the Cerberus was laid down, quite a lot of battleships had already been built. For example, their armored frigate, La Gloire (Glory), was built in France in 1859, when the British responded by building a Warrior with 4.5-inch teak-lined armor protection. But all these ships to one degree or another copied the previous sailing ships, although they were built of metal. The guns on them were placed on the sides and fired through the embrasures, and the masts retained full sail armament. Therefore, the first "real" battleship is considered to be the American "Monitor" designed by J. Ericsson, which belonged to the northerners, which on March 9, 1862, on the Hampton roadstead, entered the battle with the "Virginia" - the battleship of the southerners. The battle ended in a "draw", but the conclusion drawn from it by all naval specialists was unambiguous: to fight such an battleship, you need to have the same battleship! And all countries began to build monitors with a hull semi-submerged in sea water, and gun turrets towering above the deck, which were usually installed from one to three.
American "Miantonomo".
When the American two-tower monitor Miantonomo arrived in England in 1866 for a courtesy visit, British engineers examined it carefully and thought they were perfectly capable of building a coastal defense ship just as good, if not better, than that of the Americans. This is how the construction of Cerberus received its technical justification!
First among equals
Cerberus was the first in a series of seven coastal defense battleships built in British shipyards over 10 years, from 1867 to 1877. It was laid down in September 1867 at the shipyard of the shipbuilding company "Palmer Shipbuilding and Iron Co.", launched in December 1868, and completed construction in early autumn 1870. The Cerberus had the Magdala sistership, and five more ships of a similar design, and four more ships, of which the first was the Cyclops, were later launched and slightly improved. The first seven ships in England were unofficially named "Monster Class".
"Prince Albert" is the first specially built turret warship in the British Navy, with gun turrets designed by Cooper F. Coles (1864).
The main difference between Cerberus and American monitors was the presence of a barbet, which was an armored superstructure of 3.5 meters, which rose on the deck like a fortress wall and protected the entire middle part of the ship, including the foundations of both its towers and chimneys. In addition, he also booked the board. The booking itself was more than solid: a 6 "to 8" (150 to 200 mm) waistband, supported by 9 to 11 "(230 to 280 mm) teak planking. Breastwork: 8 to 9 inches (200 to 230 mm). Towers: 9 to 10 inches (230 to 250 mm). Deck: 1 to 1.25 inches (25 to 31.8 mm). However, the creators of the ship did not even think this was enough. For additional protection, Cerberus can take water into ballast tanks, reducing the height of the already low freeboard, submerging into the water almost to the very deck.
Semi-model of the battleship "Cerberus" made of paper. View from the stern. The barbet and turret gun mounts with ventilation grilles on the roof are clearly visible. Under the bridge you can see a 127-mm gun and three Hotchkiss anti-mine cannons in the bow and aft of the bridge.
The ship's displacement was 3253 tons, i.e. the steam plant had a power of 1370 hp. and rotated two propellers with a diameter of more than three meters (!), which gave it an economic speed of six knots, and its maximum speed was 9.75 knots (18.06 km / h). Steam for steam engines was generated by five boilers, which had a total of 13 furnaces, the chimneys from which came out into one, but wide pipe. The fuel supply was 240 tons of coal, stored in bunkers directly next to the furnaces, to which it was delivered along rail tracks on trolleys, with turning and tipping mechanisms. Going at full speed, it consumed up to 50 tons of coal per day, and economically - 24 tons. Thus, ocean voyages alone were contraindicated for him! The safety of the vessel was increased by a double bottom and seven watertight bulkheads that rose to the deck itself. The draft of the battleship was 4.7 meters. The crew consisted of 12 officers and 84 sailors, but in wartime it received an additional 40 people.
The same semi-model. View from the nose.
The armament of the Cerberus consisted of four rifled, muzzle-loading ten-inch or 254-mm guns, each weighing 18 tons. They were located two by two in cylindrical gun turrets designed by engineer Kolz, which rotated hydraulically on roller bearings below deck. As additional weapons - Nordefeld's rapid-fire guns were used to shoot back from attacking torpedo boats and destroyers. On the upper deck, in addition to these two towers, the base of which was covered by an armored barbette, there was a superstructure with a bridge along its entire length, and here was also the wheelhouse and chimney. The oval-shaped conning tower was located behind the mast - a place not very convenient for observation forward and backward, but it was made of 229 mm of armor. The lifeboats and crane beams for their launching were placed so that they did not interfere with the conduct of a circular fire from both towers. There was only one mast on the battleship, but for ocean navigation to Australia, it was equipped with complete sailing equipment, because the reserves of coal on the Cerberus were very limited.
The gun turret of the battleship Hotspur and its 12-inch cannon with a projectile.
Cerberus plows the oceans …
When the Cerberus left the port of Chetham on the Thames on October 29, 1870, no one expected her seaworthiness to be so bad. But very quickly it became clear that he was subject to such a rolling in stormy weather that his first team … immediately rebelled as soon as the ship was in Portsmouth. Like, we will not lead this "floating coffin" further. And the thing was that just at that very time the British fleet lost a large turret battleship "Captain", with full sailing weapons and … capsized on the high seas in the Bay of Biscay while sailing in stormy weather. A second crew was recruited, but he also raised a mutiny, however, already when the Cerberus reached Malta. Then a platoon of marines was put on board the ship, and only then he made a safe transition to Melbourne. At the same time, the captain of the Panthers, as well as the chief engineer and the boatswain, were almost the only members of his crew who were permanently on him during this entire voyage!
Cerberus in dry dock.
However, we can say that the fate of "Cerberus" was favorable, and more than once. Firstly, he did not roll over like "Captain", although he could. Secondly, it became both the first ship and the first warship to pass through the newly opened Suez Canal! It is also interesting that this battleship passed the main part of its journey under steam and regularly replenished its coal reserves. And the sails were never useful to him, except for one single case, when during a storm in the Bay of Biscay they had to be raised in order to use them to keep a course downwind.
Serving in Kangaroo Country
While on military service in Australia, "Cerberus" was not particularly famous for anything, since then no one was going to attack her. But then one day it happened that one night in 1878, a small merchant ship began to enter Hobson Bay without paying the customs duty in advance. The Cerberus itself at that time was anchored just in this bay, well, and its guns were looking towards the sea. Where else could they look, right? However, no one on board noticed that the current had already turned the ship so that now they were looking … at the shore. Well, the gunners, barely noticing the unknown ship, immediately fired a volley! And hit the roof of a pharmacy in the town of St. Kilda with a shell! Of course, they noticed their mistake, turned the tower around and fired again, and … hit the lighthouse, which was on the opposite side of the bay on the cape! The fire was immediately stopped, but the unknown merchant ship was only found in the morning. But later "Cerberus" received electric lighting and, for the amusement of the public, arranged entertainment shows with spotlights on the shore. Interestingly, he was lucky to serve alternately in three fleets of the same power: first he was assigned to the Victorian Colonial Flotilla from 1871 to 1901, then from 1901 to 1913 he was enlisted in the Navy of the British Commonwealth, and as a result, with 1913 to 1924 - belonged to the Royal Australian Navy.
On the Cerberus bridge in 1895.
In 1926, this battleship was bought by one of the Melbourne companies involved in the disposal of decommissioned warships. All equipment was removed from the Cerberus, leaving only an 1800-ton barbet, two towers, 400 tons each, and very heavy and uncomfortable cannons, after which it was flooded 150 meters from the coast in order to become a breakwater.
The Russian analogue of similar turret ships: the armored turret "boat" "Smerch" (1865). Armament: 2 - 196-mm guns, since 1870: 2 - 229-mm., The ventilation of the towers is arranged more perfectly than on the "Cerberus".
In December 1993, a severe storm caused the 2000-ton hull of the old ship to break in half, so that a 25-meter "exclusion zone" was created around it. its skeleton is a real danger. However, it turns out that today it is the only surviving battleship of the first generation, even if its safety is "not very"! And it is also the first ship in the world with a parapet and two gun turrets designed by engineer Colz - the creator of the ill-fated Captain, the only surviving battleship of the Royal Australian Navy, its first flagship and … the most powerful warship among all its ships, moreover, specially built for Australia!
