The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-07
River Clyde" of Immortal Gallipoli Fame, Knocked Down at Auction to
 Spanish Buyers
By CLAIR PRICE

now spending an honorable and unsea-
 worthy old age in Charlestown Navy
 rdHBoston, recurs in connection with
 ship auction held here recently. The
 U. $. S Constitution, which is the name
 by which the navy department lists "Old Ironsides," was built in 1797 and
 blazed her way to glory in the War oi
 1S12. subsequently 5ne department
 tried to sell her, put Oliver Wendell
 Holmes minted the nations indignation
 into his poem, T'old IronsidesS The re-
 suit was that the department backed
 water in hurry and ''Old Ironsidesv still exists as national memorial.
 Britain, however, had no Holmes when the British admiralty ordered the
 shot-riddled hulk of the s. $. River
 Clyde to be put up at auction. The bid-
 ding start@ at $15,000. and, with ad- vances of $500 and s250 at time. the loffers crept up to s57.50o. at which price the auctioneers hammer knocked her down to Spanish firm of marine engi-
 neers. The presence in the auction room of Commander Edward Unwin,
 who commanded this modern Horse or
 Troy at V Beach, GaIlipoli, in April 1915, alone lifted the sale out of the commonplace.
 What remains of her now lies in the admiralty dockyard at Malta and if she is ever recovered as 8 national memorial, it will be because promi- nent British shipbuilder has taken upon himself to telegraph her Spanish own CTS an offer to buy her back at profit, 1 in order to present her to the nation either for preservation at q British harbor or for an honorable burial at l sea.
 Probably there has been no landing in the historyof wars, such as earned im- mortality for the River Clyde at Galii- poll. Five landings were made on the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula on that suicidal 25th of April 1915. Landings in strength were made on V, w and X beaches and feints were made
 at s and beaches. The most cruel of the five was the V beach landing. V beach was a small amphitheatre- like shelf in the steep coasts of the iGallipoli peninsula, small, circular and sandy. about 300 yards across, and dom-
 mated zy the ruins of Sedd-el- -Bahr castle. It was mined, wired and com
 manded by murderous crossfire of machine guns Through it's surf and against it's intrenched defenders. the Dublin Fusiliers, the Munster Fusiliers, a half battalion of the Hampshire reg 1 iment and the West riding field com lpany were to be launched at 5:3O o'clock
 in the morning. They not only had to land themselves, but their munitions guns, intrenching tools, sand bags, pro- visions. clothing, hospitals, mules horses, fodder, even their drinking
 water. The defense could have asked nothing better.
 They left the big harbor at Mudros,
 which was the allied base for opera tions against the Dardanelles, at noon of April 2s. The River Clyde, originally
 q tramp collier of 3.913 tons, built in
 1905. carried the beach landing party, with two lighters in tow, containing the 1 overflow of men. She had been re- I fitted with gangways cut in her sides at the level of her between decks; the plan was to beach her, drag her lighters into I position to make bridge across the surf. drop her gangways and then pour out her landing party
 She left Tenedos at midnight of the 24th. The dawn was quiet. The sea was perfect for the operation She ! picked up Sedd- Bahr, and bore 1 straight for the little stretch of yellow sand which was V beach. She took the ! beach some 400 yards west of the ruined castle and the Turks opened on her at once with rifle and machine gun l fire. During the first few minutes they did 10000 shots a minute, whip
 ping the sea into the appearance of rapids.
 I
 into position ahead of the beached col
 Her. but men of the landing party be- gan dropping on all sides. Men leaping I from the steamer to help with the 1 lighters, were either shot down or swallowed up by the difficult currents The average life on the lighters was 1 three minutes.
 When the lighters were finally got | into position and the steamers gang
 ways dropped, the landing party poured 1 out in strength, bending into the gale l of lead, only to drop in the way of
 their comrades or to fall overheard and
 be swept away by the currents. l The big guns on the Asiatic shore of 1 the Dardanelles opened on the steamer. Brigadier General Napier was one of 1 the first to issue from the steamer, but 1 he had no sooner set foot on the light I CTS than he dropped killed instantly by bullet through the head. The few l men who did succeed in setting foot on the beach dropped while they were cut
 ting their wire entanglements which 1 met them
 A bare handful of men finally got l through the barbed wire and dug into l the-sand. There they lay all day with i the stiff rays of a Gallipoli sun burning Unto them. When evening fell, the rest of the landing party made it's way I ashore by moonlight. and charge was
 launched up the hill to seize the castle
 ruins, which were alive with Turkish J rifles and Turkish machine guns The &eharge failed and the answer to it was 1 a Turkish charge at midnight. which beat the remnant of the landing party 1 back onto the beach and all but wiped them out. A second British attack at l dawn the next day succeeded better and
 the castle ruins were seized
 l The tragic story of the rest of the i Gallipoli campaign is already known. 1 After the evacuation, the Turks pill l laged the beached River Clyde and when the armistice with Turkey was finally l signed on October, 30. 1918. her stripped I hulk still lay on the sands of V beach, 1 a mute monument to her moment of 1 glory.
 | The British admiralty succeeded in I towing her to Malta, and question was i asked in the House of Commons con cerning her future. The admiralty re- 1 piled that it would cost $100,o00 to 1 make her seaworthy and tow her to l England. There the matter apparently 1 lay, while sentiment crystallized 9~throughout Britain into demand that. i if it were found too expensive to fetch ] her home. she might at least be lowed 1 out to sea from Malta and buried in
 the Mediterranean with full naval honors.
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