'Gallipoli- "River Clyde" Pushing in for V Beach', in the Dardanelles, 1915 RMG PW2078

'Gallipoli: "River Clyde" Pushing in for V Beach', in the Dardanelles, 1915
Signed by the artist and inscribed, lower left, 'River Clyde pushing in for V Beach / from a sketch by a Naval officer'. This drawing was reproduced (with the title quoted above) in Wyllie and M.F. Wren's 'Sea Fights of the Great War' (1918) f. p. 156. The 'River Clyde' was a collier and general cargo ship built in 1905. In the spring of 1915 she was converted into a troop-landing ship and at about 06.15 on 25 April 1915 was deliberately run aground on V-Beach, near the Turkish fort of Sedd-el-Bahr at Cape Helles, Gallipoli. She was carrying some 2000 troops of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Royal Hampshire Regiment and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The intention was for a pontoon of barges and small boats to bridge the gap between the ship and the shore, to enable the troops to land en masse, but there was great difficulty in placing the boats and the men were shot down in their hundreds. V-Beach was neverthless eventually secured and the 'River Clyde' remained in position to provide fresh water and medical facilities until the evacuation in January 1916. She was refloated in 1919, towed to Malta for repairs, and her subsequent mercantile career was relatively free of incident. She was broken up in 1966 in Spain. In this drawing, the steam hopper 'Argyll' is close alongside the 'River Clyde' during the approach to the beach and they are being covered by three 'Beagle' (G)-class destroyers.