On 12 April 1915 River Clyde was purchased by the Admiralty to be adapted to a landing ship for the joint French and British invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

[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).

Number 3 Armoured Car Squadron Royal Naval Air Service (Lieutenant-Commander Josiah Wedgwood) was ordered to use 11 of his Maxim guns on the ship.

[7] By 11 April 1915 River Clyde was in the natural harbour of Mudros on the Aegean island of Lemnos, where French and British ships were assembling for the landings.

The troops on River 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.

Six Victoria 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-Lieutenant Arthur Tisdall, Able Seaman William Williams, Seaman George Samson and Midshipmen George Drewry and Wilfred Malleson.

[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.

[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.