A mine detonated during an exercise about ten years after Cerberus arrived in Victoria, causing the only deaths of her operational career. The ship later sent two divers to help five miners trapped in air pockets after flooding at the Creswick gold mine. Their suits did not fit, and the rescue party had only about 500 feet of air hose for miners roughly 1,500 feet from the entrance. The divers could not reach them. The failure lay in the equipment sent with the specialists and the inadequate shore support, rather than a lack of trained divers.
Chapter · 13:38-14:35
A fatal mine exercise and failed rescue at Creswick
Cerberus lost men in a mine exercise, then sent divers to the flooded Creswick gold mine without suits that fitted or enough air hose to reach the trapped miners.