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Cap Ribbons of the Victorian Naval Forces



"In the Victorian Navy every man was ships company of the Cerberus and that ship's name was on his cap, no matter what ship he might be serving in, the Nelson, Victoria, Albert or the Torpedo boats, in which case he would be quartered at the Depot at Williamstown, all really belonged to the Cerberus."

Under Steam, Part II, James Condor, Unpublished Manuscript made available by author James Bryance Condor's grand daughter Betty Cromb

In the above excerpt from his journal Jim Conder is referring to the permanent force, which was known as the Victorian Navy. The part time force, known as the Victorian Naval Brigade had a cap ribbon that simply stated Naval Brigade or between 1870 and 1885, Naval Reserve as below.

Some confusion is caused by the boys of the Nelson wearing cap ribbons bearing the word Nelson. The Nelson cap ribbon was to indicate that the wearer was from the training ship Nelson. Although there was a rank of boy in the Victorian Navy, the Nelson boys were not members of the navy.

Those serving on HMCS Victoria wore a cap ribbon with Victoria on it and a crown above it. It is also likely that, before the arrival of Cerberus, those serving on Nelson wore Nelson cap ribbons. As HMS was only added to British cap ribbons from 1864 onwards, it is possible that it took a year or two for HMVS to be introduced in the Victorian Navy.

The discovery that the Nelson Cutter Crew wore cap ribbons in 1882 with only Nelson on them suggests that no designation was used until at least 1882. Most likely HMVS was added in 1884 when the new Gunboats and Torpedo Boats arrived. Cap ribbons were probably standardised as HMVS Cerberus for the permanent Victorian Navy force and Naval Brigade for the part time force.

Just to confuse the issue is the following report that appeared in an 1889 newspaper of an attendee at a fancy dress ball in Tallangatta. "Mr J. Bruton. Man-of-wars-man — Black cap with the inscription "Cerberus," blue serge jumper and drill frock, blue cloth trousers." Ovens & Murray Advertiser, 23 November 1889. This could simply be a case of an ex-sailor dressing up in his old uniform for the ball.

Known Cap RibbonsOther Possible Cap RibbonsLikely Date Range
Victoria
under crown.
 1855 - 1868
Deborah
(Reformatory, not Navy)
 1864 - 1873
Naval Training Ship1
(not Navy)
 1865 - 1869
Nelson (not Navy)2 1869 - 1876
Nelson (Navy) 1868 - 1884
 Cerberus41871 - 1884
Naval Brigade
(Volunteer Naval Brigade)
 1859 - 1871
Naval Reserve 18743 - 1885
Naval Brigade 1885 - 1901
HMVS Cerberus 1884 - 1901
HMVS Lady Loch (not Navy) 1886 - 1901
 HMVS Gannet (not Navy)1885 - 1901
 Pharos (not Navy)1865 - ?
 HMVS Vulcan (not Navy)1889 - ?


Victoria Cap Ribbon. As Victoria is centred
under the crown there is no designation.

Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria
John Cockle with Naval Brigade
Cap Ribbon, c 1867.

(Volunteer Naval Brigade)
Courtesy of Elizabeth Douglas.
Charles Lay with HMVS Cerberus
Cap Ribbon c 1895

Photo courtesy of Geoff Dougal.
William Raymond with Naval Reserve
Cap Ribbon c 1878.

Australian War Memorial, AO5366
Nelson Cap Ribbon in 1868,
being worn by one of Nelson's crew.

Illustrated Melbourne Post, 28 March 1868
I. Campbell of the Williamstown Naval Brigade
wearing a Naval Brigade Cap Ribbon in 1889.

Photo courtesy of Ada Ackely 
HMVS Lady Loch Cap Ribbon,
being worn by one of Lady Loch's crew.

Courtesy of the Williamstown Historical Society
Nelson Training Ship Cap Ribbon,
being worn by Joseph Blacker in 1868.

Image State Library of Victoria
Deborah Cap Ribbon,
worn by an inmate of the Deborah Reformatory
Ship, soon after transferring to Sir Harry Smith.

Courtesy of Royal Historical Society of Victoria
Nelson Cap Ribbon in 1882,
being worn by a member of
the Nelson Cutter Crew.
Courtesy of Jenny Scannen.




The only known original HMVS Cerberus Cap Ribbon.

Donated by Mrs Joan M. Whyte, the above cap ribbon is on display in the Museum of HMAS Cerberus. It formerly belonged to Hubert Harry Jones, the Cerberus Paymaster in the 1890's. The red material is not part of the cap ribbon.






Replica Cap Ribbon produced and sold by Friends of the Cerberus.



How to tie a cap ribbon.


1 Worn by the Naval Training Ship boys on board Sir Harry Smith. The Argus, 27 May 1867
2 Worn by the Naval Training Ship boys on board HMVS Nelson.
3 An advertisement for "216 cap ribbon to pattern" for the Naval Reserve in March 1874 suggests that Naval Reserve cap ribbons were not worn until after this date.
4 Newspaper report of an attendee at a fancy dress ball in Tallangatta. "Mr J. Bruton. Man-of-wars-man — Black cap with the inscription "Cerberus," blue serge jumper and drill frock, blue cloth trousers." Ovens & Murray Advertiser, 23 November 1889.




H.M.C.S. or H.M.A.S. Cerberus

While searching for references to the swivel from HMCS Victoria I was surprised to discover a handful of references to HMCS Cerberus (C for Commonwealth) between 1901 and 1911. Given that there were 34 references to HMAS Cerberus and only 8 references to HMCS Cerberus, the HMCS references could have been dismissed as reporting errors except for one instance. In October of 1902 Captain Tickell of the Cerberus wrote a letter to the editor of the Argus about how to avoid boating fatalities. At the end of the letter Captain Tickell signed as:-



C.N. would have stood for Commonwealth Navy and H.M.C.S. for His Majesty's Commonwealth Ship.
The Argus, 17 October 1902

So on one hand we have eight newspaper references to HMCS Cerberus and a letter from her Captain. On the other hand we have 34 newspaper references to HMAS Cerberus and the official letterhead used below in 1905 by Lieutenant Colquhoun. For the same period there were also 25 references to HMVS Cerberus, no doubt a hangover from the previous 30 years.



H.M.A.S. Cerberus Letterhead
Papers of Baron Hallam Tennyson, extract from Colquhoun letter 3 July 1905,
Deakin Papers, National Library of Australia, MS 479

It is most likely the case, that as the Commonwealth Naval Forces was only formed on the 1st of March 1904, prior to this, at least one local commander was simply assuming that a future Commonwealth Navy would designate its ships as H.M.C.S.. As we can see from the letterhead above, H.M.A.S was settled on as the official designation by the new Commonwealth Naval Forces. Obviously this designation continued to be used after the 10th of July 1911 when the Commonwealth Naval Forces changed its name to the Royal Australian Navy.