The restored Gallipoli gunboat, HMS M.33, has attracted 50,000 visitors since opening in August 2015, the UK’s National Museum of the Royal Navy has announced.
Built to carry out inshore attacks, M.33 is the only surviving British warship of the Dardanelles campaign.
She’s been restored in a £2.5 million project at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for NMRN’s Great War at Sea 1914-1918 Centenary programme.
The opening ceremony took place on August 6th 2015, the centenary of the last major Allied offensive at Gallipoli.
Lesley Wills, a descendant of Richard Chapple who served on M.33 during the 1915 campaign, was among the guests and has visited the ship several times.
She said: “I came down with a school group a few weeks ago and it was a brilliant experience for them. I was with children who knew nothing about the Gallipoli campaign but yet they were enthralled by everything, especially the film.
“That for me is what it’s all about – teaching the next generation about these things. It’s fantastic going on board the M.33, it feels like my grandad’s memory is being kept alive.”
Centenary News reported from the opening ceremony of M.33. Read the full story here.
Source: National Museum of the Royal Navy
Images: Centenary News
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News