From ships' boats to Gallipoli's X-lighters

Before World War I, most landings were made before defenders could concentrate against the shore, so ships' boats remained practical troop carriers. Gallipoli exposed their limits once an opponent knew the landing places and prepared the ground. The Royal Navy responded by adding armour and propulsion to sturdy, near-seagoing London barges that yards already knew how to build. These slow but useful X-lighters appeared again in Baltic service and remained in naval use after the war. Their retention contradicts the idea that the Navy simply abandoned amphibious capability after Gallipoli.