 River Clyde at V Beach on theGallipoli peninsula, showing disembarkation ports cut in her starboard side. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | River Clyde[1] |
| Namesake | River Clyde, Scotland |
| Owner | |
| Port of registry | Glasgow |
| Builder | Russell & Co, Port Glasgow[1] |
| Yard number | 537[2] |
| Launched | 23 February 1905[2] |
| Completed | March 1905[1] |
| Out of service | 1915 |
| Fate | Sold to The Admiralty[4] |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | River Clyde |
| Acquired | 1915[2] |
| Out of service | 1920[2] |
 Spain | |
| Name | Angela[1] |
| Owner | A Pardo[2] |
| Port of registry | Santander |
| Acquired | 1920 |
| Out of service | 1928 |
 Spain | |
| Name | |
| Owner | Gumersindo Junquera Blanco[1][2] |
| Port of registry | Gijón |
| Acquired | 7 December 1928[4] |
| Out of service | 27 August 1937[4] |
| Identification | signal code HCPJ (asMaruja y Aurora)[1]    |
| Fate | Seized bySpanish Nationalists, assigned to Spanish National Navy |
 Nationalist Spain | |
| Name | Maruja y Aurora |
| Acquired | 27 August 1937[4] |
| Out of service | 1939[4] |
| Fate | Returned to former owners |
 Spain | |
| Name | Maruja y Aurora[1] |
| Owner | |
| Port of registry | Gijón |
| Acquired | 1939[4] |
| Out of service | 1965 |
| Identification | signal code HCPJ[1] |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1966[4] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | collier |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 344.8 ft (105.1 m)[1] |
| Beam | 49.8 ft (15.2 m)[1] |
| Draught | 17.9 ft (5.5 m)[1] |
| Installed power | 374NHP[1] |
| Propulsion | Kincaid & Co. 3-cylindertriple expansion steam engine;[1] single screw |
SSRiver Clyde was a 3,913 GRT Britishcollier built byRussell & Co ofPort Glasgow on theFirth of Clyde and completed in March 1905. In the First World War theAdmiralty requisitioned her for theRoyal Navy and in 1915 she took part in theGallipoli landings. After the war she was repaired and sold to Spanish owners, with whom she spent a long civilian career trading in the Mediterranean before being scrapped in 1966.
River Clyde had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 169 sq ft (15.7 m2) that heated three 180lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 6,150 sq ft (571 m2) to raise steam for her three-cylindertriple expansion engine. The engine was built byJ. G. Kincaid & Co. ofGreenock and was rated at 374NHP.[1]
In February 1909, theRiver Clyde was towed intoMoreton Bay by theFalls of Orchy. TheRiver Clyde had been carrying coal fromNewcastle, N.S.W. toManila. She was on her way back to Newcastle, when she ran out of bunker coal after encountering adverse weather. She had been adrift for 25 hours, after first having used wood from her hold ceiling and bulkheads to fuel her boilers to divert to Moreton Bay and recoal.[5]
During the planning of landings at Gallipoli,CommanderEdward Unwin, formerly of theDryad-class torpedo gunboatHMS Hussar proposed the use of an anonymous-looking collier as aTrojan Horse, carrying about 2,000 troops, to be run onto V Beach just after the first wave of about 2,000 troops had landed, doubling the number of troops in the first wave. On 12 April 1915River Clyde was purchased by the Admiralty to be adapted to alanding ship for the joint French and British invasion of theGallipoli Peninsula. She retained her name.[6] Openings were cut in her steel hull as sally ports from which troops would emerge onto broad gangways and then to a steam hopper (a flat-bottomed, shallow-draft boat used to collect spoil from a dredger).[7]
A bridge of three lighters with special covered decks to make a pontoon bridge from the ship to the beach in case the gap between the ship and the lighter was too great, a survey of the beach being impractical. Number 3 Armoured Car SquadronRoyal Naval Air Service (Lieutenant-CommanderJosiah Wedgwood) was ordered to use 11 of hisMaxim guns on the ship.Boiler plate and sandbags were mounted on thefo'c'sle, the upper deck and bridge for the guns.[8] Work began on paintingRiver Clyde's hull sandy yellow ascamouflage, but this was incomplete by the time of the landing.[7]
By 11 April 1915River Clyde was in the natural harbour ofMudros on the Aegean island ofLemnos, where French and British ships were assembling for the landings. The troops onRiver Clyde took the opportunity to practise quick disembarkation in full marching order; they were issued with a pamphlet containing excerpts from textbooks on landings and combined operations with the Navy.[9] Thetroop shipHMT Aragon reached Mudros fromAlexandria inEgypt and transferred the 1st Battalion,Royal Munster Fusiliers and a company of the 1stRoyal Dublin Fusiliers (86th Brigade), two companies of the 2nd Battalion, theHampshire Regiment, a platoon of the Anson Battalion, the GHQ Signals Section, theWorcestershire Regiment Field Company RE and other detachments of the88th Brigade,29th Division toRiver Clyde.[10]
On 25 April 1915River Clyde sailed to take part in thelanding at Cape Helles. She was carrying 2,000 soldiers; mostly from86th Brigade, units of the 29th Division, the 1st Battalion of theRoyal Munster Fusiliers and men from the 2nd Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment, the 1st Battalion, theRoyal Dublin Fusiliers.[11] Unwin beachedRiver Clyde at V Beach beneath theSedd el Bahr castle, on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula. The plan failed and theRiver Clyde, beached under the guns of the Ottoman defenders, became a death trap. Three attempts to land made by companies of Munsters, Royal Dublins and Hampshires were costly failures. Further landing attempts were abandoned and the surviving soldiers waited until nightfall before trying again. Members ofRiver Clyde's crew maintained the footways from the ship to the beach and recovered the wounded.
After the Helles beach-head was established, V Beach became the base for the French contingent andRiver Clyde remained beached as a quay and breakwater. Her condensers provided fresh water and herholds became afield dressing station. She remained a constant target for Turkish gunners ashore.
SixVictoria Crosses were awarded at V Beach to sailors or men from the Royal Naval Division who had attempted to maintain the bridge of lighters and recover the wounded, including Commander Unwin, Sub-LieutenantArthur Tisdall,Able SeamanWilliam Williams,SeamanGeorge Samson andMidshipmenGeorge Drewry andWilfred Malleson.Lieutenant ColonelCharles Doughty-Wylie was awarded a posthumous VC, for leading the attack finally to capture Sedd el Bahr on the morning 26 April, during whichWilliam Cosgrove of the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers was also awarded a VC.[12]
In 1919,River Clyde was refloated by the Ocean Salvage Co. and taken to Malta.[13] The British Government refused a proposal to purchase her to return to the UK for mooring in the River Thames as a monument to the landings because of the cost.[14] She was repaired atMalta and sold in February 1920 to civilian Spanish owners.[6] She operated as atramp steamer in the Mediterranean, first asAngela and thenMaruja y Aurora.[2][13] Maruja and Aurora were the names of the eldest child of each of the two partners in the company, Gumersindo Junquera Blanco and Vicente Figaredo Herrero.[15] She was seized bySpanish Nationalist forces at Santander in August 1937 and used by the Nationalist navy, during which time she captured the steamshipMargarita.[4] She made trips between Santander and Ferrol and carried troops between Gijón and Bilbao.[4] Returned to her former owners 18 months later, she resumed her commercial role; she rescued three British airmen during the Second World War.[4] In 1965 there was an attempt to buy and preserveRiver Clyde but the British Government were unwilling to purchase her. In 1966 she was sold to Desguaces y Salvamentos S.A. for £42,000; scrapping atAvilés, Spain, commenced on 15 March 1966.[13]
Media related toRiver Clyde (ship, 1905) at Wikimedia Commons