Cerberus-class monitor

Also referred to as "ironclads" and "turret ships", the ships of the Cerberus class were designed by Sir Edward Reed following requests by several dominions and colonies of the British Empire for warships to be used as coastal defence ships. The class consisted of two ships: {{HMS|Cerberus|1868|6}}, which was operated by the colony of Victoria, and {{HMS|Magdala|1870|6}}, which spent her life operating in Bombay Harbour.

The size of the ships was limited by cost. They were designed and built to be used as local defence ships, and it was not expected that they would ever need to be deployed far away from their bases. It was therefore possible to design them without sails or rigging and dependent only upon their engines, with a resulting limitation in their effective range.

The absence of masts and rigging allowed more weight to be worked into the ship's armour. This also meant it was possible to arm the ships with two gun turrets, one fore and one aft, which had wholly unobstructed fields of fire over the bow and stern, and on wide arcs amidships. The turrets were mounted on the upper deck and hence had a greater height above water and a correspondingly greater command than guns mounted on the main deck. The turret armament provided an additional advantage of allowing the ships to have a low freeboard. This increased the steadiness of the ship and allowed the hull armour to be applied more thickly over a more limited height of exposed hull.

• HMVS Cerberus- harbour defence vessel at Melbourne, Australia
• {{HMS|Magdala|1870|6}} – harbour defence vessel at Bombay, India

• {{HMS|Abyssinia|1870|6}} – harbour defence vessel at Bombay, India, built to a similar, but smaller, design.

{{Commons category|Cerberus class monitor}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last =Archibald | first =E.H.H. | title =The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860–1970 | url =https://archive.org/details/metalfightingshi0000arch | url-access =registration | publisher =Arco Publishing Co | year =1971 | location =New York | isbn =0-668-02509-3 }}
• Brown, D.K., Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860–1906, {{ISBN|1-84067-529-2}}
• {{Cite Colledge2006}}
• {{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Norman |title=British Battleships of the Victorian Era |date=2018 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=978-1-68247-329-0|author-link=Norman Friedman}}
• {{cite journal | last = Fuller | first = Howard J. | authorlink = | title = "A portentous spectacle": The Monitor U.S.S. Miantonomoh Visits England | journal = International Journal of Naval History | volume = 4 | issue = 3 | date = December 2005 | url = http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume4_number3_dec05/dec05%20PDFs/Fuller%20article.pdf | accessdate = 2008-11-27 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080723113754/http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume4_number3_dec05/dec05%20PDFs/Fuller%20article.pdf | archivedate = 23 July 2008 | df = dmy-all }}
• {{cite book |last=Parkes |first=Oscar |title=British Battleships |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |year=1990 |orig-year=1957 |isbn=1-55750-075-4|author-link=Oscar Parkes}}
• {{cite book |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905 |editor1-last=Chesneau |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Kolesnik |editor2-first=Eugene M. |publisher=Mayflower Books |location=New York |year=1979 |isbn=0-8317-0302-4 |name-list-style=amp |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2|chapter=Great Britain (including Empire Forces)|author1-last=Roberts|author1-first=John|pages=1–113}}

{{Cerberus class monitor}}

{{British ironclads}}

Category:Monitor classes