Essentially the Clyde
Puffer was a strongly built wee
steam coaster just less that
70ft in length that could carry
about 100 tonnes of cargo and
could load or discharge it when
there was sufficient water to
float her. When there wasn’t
even the pretence of any harbour
or pier, or insufficient water,
due to her hull shape and
design, she could be beached and
her cargo discharged over the
side, into wagons or lorries
driven alongside on the sand and
then sail away on the next high
tide.
Crew accommodation was
rather basic, being a dark
triangle with a 15ft base right
forward. The four crew lived
there. The ‘comfort’ station
was a small sentry box affair on
the quarter-deck or forward by
the mast rigging and for some
reason, had been known to be
called the ‘thunder box.’
Early vessels had a
non-condensing steam engine that
exhausted into the funnel with a
distinctive sound pattern that
earned them the name of ‘
Puffers.’ That name stuck to
this maritime breed even when
more modern designs arrived with
diesel engines and better
accommodation.
Thousands of people have read
and laughed at Neil Munro’s
characters in his stories on
the Vital Spark and his crafty,
irascible skipper –Para Handy.
But the real men who sailed in
the puffers –older or newer –
were characters in their own
right without any need for
scripts. I was fortunate in
going aboard the later ones to
work on their radio, radar and
VHF equipment. I met some of
those modern Puffer-men with
some eccentric personalities. I
also heard some stories from a
very reliable source.