Navy

Last Surviving British Warship From Gallipoli Campaign Restored

A restored British warship from the Gallipoli campaign will be officially opened on August 6th 2015, the centenary of the last major Allied offensive on the peninsula.

HMS M.33 has been restored as part of a £2.5 million project undertook by the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), at Portsmouth's historic dockyard.

The gunboat is the only surviving naval ship from the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign and as such holds great historic importance.

With a shallow draft and a top speed of nine knots, M.33 was designed for inshore attacks on land targets. Visitors will have a view of the 'Monitor' class vessel's flat bottom from a platform at the base of her dry dock.

She's been restored as part of the NMRN's Great War at Sea 1914-1918 centenary programme.

The project, carried out in partnership with Hampshire County Council, was awarded a £1.8m grant from the UK's National Lottery. Sir Peter Luff, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said:

“The role played at Gallipoli by the Royal Navy and Monitor Class ships like M33 in protecting soldiers in the August 1915 landings is an incredible story of perseverance, endeavour and bravery. It has a personal meaning for me as my father and his two brothers served in Gallipoli."

"So I'm particularly grateful that, thanks to National Lottery players, M33 is now open in the campaign’s centenary year and people can experience first-hand the conditions in which the men aboard lived and fought.”

More than 100,000 lives were lost in the Gallipoli campaign between April 1915 and January 1916.