"Lucky" ship opens to tell grim story of First World War Gallipoli Campaign

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Thousands of hours of work and hundreds of litres of wax mean survivor will open to public in August

The Royal Navy’s only surviving warship from the Gallipoli Campaign - one of only three surviving from the First World War - will be opened to the public following extensive conservation work.

HMS M.33 will be open for boarding at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, on August 6 as a thoroughly modern museum space dedicated to both M.33 and the Gallipoli Campaign of which she was a key part.

“HMS M.33 is a small ship but has a big history,” says Matthew Sheldon, the director of the project.

“It will be wonderful to open the ship to visitors this year on her centenary. Finally we’ll be able to share the story of her part in the Gallipoli Campaign and reveal what it was like for the 72 crew who were crammed on board.”

That life must have been pure hell. Not designed for comfort, the massive iron shell acted like a giant casserole, baking the men inside.

Washing facilities were reduced to two sinks, food storage facilities were minimal and the men had to drop down into each sealed-off room in the hull through holes in the deck (mercifully, a wide corridor has been cut through the walls for visitors to walk through).

And all this without dealing with the enemy. A multi-sensory display in what used to be the engine room uses sounds, animations, photographs and personal accounts to provide a vivid account of Gallipoli, leaving the viewer in no doubt of the horrifying violence of warfare.

Yet M.33 protected her crew well. While 100,000 personnel died on the campaign, not one of M.33’s crew were hurt despite being showered in shell splinters, leading to her being considered a lucky ship.

This is even more remarkable considering M.33’s dangerous mission. Her shallow draft allowed her to get in close to the shore and turn her ferocious six-inch guns on the Turkish positions.

Each gun had a range of 14,000 yards and was heavier than the average field gun soldiers faced in the trenches.

“Because they were floating on the sea, they were heavy calibre,” says Sheldon, adding. “There are arguments about how effective they were but they were certainly a deterrent.”

The work on M.33 has been long and hard, taking 3,600 hours and more than 275 litres of protective wax.

It has trodden a fine line between restoration, conservation and making the ship accessible to the public.

“It is both a physical challenge as well as a mental challenge,” says Ian Clark, head of Ian Clark Restoration.

The outside has been completely restored and repainted. M.33 lost her guns long ago but they have been replaced with authentic First World War weapons.

The inside is a different story. Cut-through doorways have linked compartments previously only accessible from the deck and the inside walls have attempted to return as closely to how M.33 would have looked at Gallipoli.

“As you can see, nothing has been repainted,” says Clark.

The paint has been stripped back as far as possible to the Gallipoli campaign scheme, leaving bare metal where necessary.

• HMS M.33 will open at the museum on August 6. Free to museum ticket holders.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

More museums to see First World War history in:

National War Museum Scotland, Edinburgh
Explore more than 400 years of the Scottish military experience in the magnificent setting of Edinburgh Castle.

World War 1 Remembrance Centre, Portsmouth
Artefacts, reproduction exhibits and memorabilia from World War One, as well as a memorial centre, walk-through trench system and occasional lectures on Ypres and The Somme.

Royal Air Force Museum, London
A wonderful collection of aircraft, interactives, medals, uniforms, film shows and memorabilia tracing the story of the RAF and aviation itself.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/first-world-war/art531666-lucky-ship-opens-to-tell-grim-story-of-first-world-war-gallipoli-campaign