When an immaculate, one-third scale Clyde Puffer showed up on the moorings beside me at Bowling, on Scotland’s Forth & Clyde Canal, I’m afraid I just couldn’t help myself! Jonathan Mosse reports…
AS commercial carriers, Puffers have undoubtedly had their day – and then some – but the presence of this perfect replica was more than excuse enough to delve into their history and carrying capabilities around this country’s coasts and inland waterways.
It is often remarked that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, an observation never truer than when applied to these floating workhorses, particularly as depicted in the Para Handy comedy series of 1970s and 1980s TV, which epitomised a way of life and (tongue in cheek) the breed of sailor that lived it:
Vital Spark was the Puffer featured in these programmes and became something of an institution, enjoyed by audiences way beyond Scotland’s shores, although sadly probably only about half a dozen episodes have survived.
In real life (and the divisions have become somewhat blurred over the passing years in the minds of many of the programme’s afficionados), the Clyde Puffer did the work of supplying the Western Isles that we take for granted as the province of today’s motor lorry.
Until 1969, ferries simply carried passengers with no provision for motor vehicles, so goods into an island community and exports out (by and large whisky!) had to be moved by Puffer, often unloading with their own steam derrick onto the beach when the tide was right.
They were flat-bottomed craft and doubtless their crews coined the expression ‘beaching’ as it was very much a way of life, their arrival often met by tractor and trailer as the tide receded, hauling away loads of anything from coal to pig meal.
What of this particular vessel so recently berthed beside me, though? Twenty-five years ago, Wee Spark was but a heap of scrap steel in an abandoned Bowling shipyard and the twinkle in the eye of a rather ingenious heating engineer (and his pal Archie) who, throughout his 86-year-long life, has never let a single project defeat him. And some of them really have to be seen to be believed!
She is as beautifully fitted out inside as she is outside and is powered by a somewhat recalcitrant single-cylinder Lister engine, started by hand. Untied, she is just as at home on a canal trip to Edinburgh as she is on a voyage down the Clyde to meet the tall ships’ arrival at Greenock.
Quiet stars of the Scottish waterways, Wee Spark and her owner, Jimmy Macfarlane, have undertaken promotional trips on behalf of the navigational authority along the Crinan Canal and hosted Timothy West and Prunella Scales on the Forth & Clyde Canal in their Great Canal Journeys series, which aired in 2015.
Indeed, no reference to Wee Spark would be complete without mention of the Purser’s Cupboard, host to a variety of beverages both hard and harder. In the delightful clip underway, featuring Tim and Pru, significant time is devoted to choosing the right tipple to accompany their watery peregrinations!
Back in the real world (and the second ‘major disagreement’ of the last century), the Clyde Puffer – or rather a very close derivative – came into its own again in the form of the Victualing Inshore Craft, or VIC as the admiralty designated the 100 vessels it commissioned to supply naval ships at anchor.
Built at Thorne on the Stainforth & Keadby Canal and Northwich on the Weaver, these boats still employed steam engines (diesel being in short supply throughout the conflict) and retained the independence of their own derricks for unloading.
Today, very few of either type of Puffer remain afloat, be that a VIC or the original ‘Clyde’ variety, and their numbers can be counted on the fingers of one hand. One notable example is VIC 32 which has a long and fascinating history, especially spanning the 50 years that she has been in preservation.
Retired by the navy in the 1960s, she was eventually bought in 1975 by enthusiasts Nick and Rachel Walker, in Whitby, and brought up to the Crinan Canal. Over the years she has had much love, care and attention lavished on her as the provider of trips (still steam-driven) around the Highlands and Islands, along Scotland’s West Coast.
If you want to drink in a piece of Scottish waterways freight history, and enjoy a Puffer Steamboat Holiday, it is well worth visiting www.savethepuffer.co.uk… or simply come and chat to Jimmy on his mooring at Bowling!
