Why Insect-class gunboats served in China and Mesopotamia

The class belonged to river and station warfare, despite six-inch guns that superficially resembled light-cruiser armament. The related Fly-class boats were built for the Tigris and Mesopotamia campaigns, where rivers carried supplies and firepower. Their design also drew on earlier river operations along the Nile and on lessons from the American Civil War. In China, the same shallow draft let gunboats carry an armed naval presence far inland. Firefly's Ottoman capture and recapture by Tarantula shows how directly these small craft could enter contested river operations.