Drifters adapting to danger at Gallipoli

Bracoden arrived at Lemnos with a six-pounder and a task of laying anti-submarine nets around Allied battleships bombarding Ottoman positions. The drifter then went alongside the beached River Clyde at Cape Helles to collect soldiers while Ottoman shells fell around the tiny vessel. Its work also included towing coal lighters, patrolling nets, and shifting repeatedly between support duties. The example shows how small civilian-derived craft supplied flexible labour and seamanship in an amphibious campaign. Their modest size did not prevent them from operating directly inside the danger zone.