IN PHOTOS: Last Gallipoli warship unravels myths of WWI disaster

Britain's last surviving warship from Gallipoli is being restored to mark the bloody campaign's centenary, as a new exhibition tries to counter myths surrounding the disastrous World War I offensive.
 
HMS M33, one of only three British ships remaining from the whole 1914-1918 war, is being painstakingly renovated in a dry dock in Portsmouth, the Royal Navy's home on the English south coast.
 
The rudimentary battleship is being conserved to help bring the story of Gallipoli to life -- and attempt to paint a more rounded picture of the costly Allied attempt to seize the Turkish peninsula.
 
"She's a little time capsule," said Nick Hewitt, strategic development executive at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, standing on the upper deck.
 
"She's a survivor that actually went into action and fought in a really significant international campaign."
 
Lying next to king Henry VIII's beloved Mary Rose and Horatio Nelson's Trafalgar flagship HMS Victory, M33 stands testimony for the World War I maritime war effort in the pantheon of British ships.
 
Built in seven weeks, the 54-metre-long steel ship is flat-bottomed so it can get in close to shore and attack land targets accurately with its disproportionately large guns. It had a crew of 78.
 
The ship has been freshly repainted in the black and white "dazzle" style -- geometric shapes intended to confuse the enemy.

But the £2.4-million ($3.6-million, 3.3-million-euro) restoration project aims to conserve the gunboat rather than refit it.
 
"There's layers of history in that steel," Hewitt said.

When it opens to the public in August, visitors will be able to tour the decks, the cramped living quarters and the...