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Western Mail, Thursday, 29 August 1929, p. 2.
S.S. Angela
The Spanish S.S. Angela is for sale. That statement does not convey much of apparent interest. Add to it the fact that she is the River Clyde, of immortal memory, and it will raise hopes in the breast of every patriot that some wealthy man in Britain will buy her and place her where she will serve to inspire future generations as a symbol of the desperate valour with which she was associated at the landing at Helles on April 25, 1915.
SS River Clyde
Names: 1905-21 River Clyde; 1921-29 Angela; and, 1929-66 Maruja y Aurora.
The SS River Clyde was a 4,000 ton collier built in Glasgow in 1905 and named after the River Clyde in Scotland. On April 25, 1915, the River Clyde was used as a Trojan horse for the landing at Cape Helles during the Battle of Gallipoli. The ship, carrying 2,000 soldiers, mainly from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, 29th Division, and also, but often not mentioned, men from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was beached beneath the Sedd el Bahr castle at V Beach, Cape Helles, on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula. However, the plan failed and the River Clyde, lying under the guns of the Turkish defenders, became a death trap.
In 1919, after the war had ended, the River Clyde was refloated and taken to Malta for repairs. As a tramp steamer, she was operated by Spanish shipping companies for another 50 years in the Mediterranean under various names, the last being Maruja y Aurora. In 1965 there was an attempt to purchase the River Clyde for preservation but in 1966 she was sold for scrap instead and broken up at Avilés, Spain.