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HMAS CERBERUS naval facility badge
HMAS CERBERUS naval facility badge

HMAS CERBERUS naval facility badge

Date1948-1952
Object number00054676
NameShip badge
MediumWood, pastic, paint
DimensionsOverall: 180 × 135 × 15 mm
ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Rhod Cook
DescriptionShip badge from naval installation HMAS CERBERUS acquired by Captain William Cook, RAN when he served as a member of the facility's training staff and its First Lieutenant during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The centre of the badge features the embossed mythological three-headed brown dog 'Cerberus' over a light blue background. Under the dog is an embossed boomerang, nulla nulla and stone axe with the words reading 'Semper Vigilans' (Always Watchful). HistoryThis object is one of a large collection of documents, photographs, uniforms, ship badges and ephemera associated with the Royal Australian Navy service of brothers William Cook and Frederick Cook. Both men entered service prior to the Second World War, were seconded to the Royal Navy, and underwent training at Greenwich and Portsmouth. Frederick Cook later gained fame as the only Australian survivor of HMS ROYAL OAK, torpedoed by a German U-boat in October 1939. William Cook was the youngest commander of an Australian destroyer during the Second World War, and was First Lieutenant of HMAS WYATT, the primary research vessel for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947-48.SignificanceThis badge is associated with HMAS CERBERUS, a land-based facility in Victoria and the RAN's premier training establishment. CERBERUS was named for the Victorian colonial navy breastwork monitor HMVS CERBERUS. The badge is also directly associated with William Cook, who was a member of the training staff at CERBERUS and its First Lieutenant during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Cook assumed command of HMAS NIZIAM in February 1945 and become the youngest Australian naval officer to command a destoyer during the Second World War. He also served as First Lieutenant aboard HMAS WYATT EARP, the first Australian naval vessel to participate in an Antarctic research expedition (the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) in the immediate post-war period.