A great sight as classics return to their birthplace to brave wind and rain
Sam Llewellyn explores Scotland's West Coast and islands in a restored Clyde Puffer steamship
A models of the Clyde Puffers on the SMM pond Photography by Alan Kempster for SMM
‘VIC 32’ was built by Dunston’s of Thorne, Yorkshire in November 1943. She has been restored and converted for cruising with small groups on the Clyde and West Coast of Scotland from her base at Crinan.
This gallery is a general pictorial resource for those interested in the history of the Clyde Puffer. More pictures will be added as they become available. We welcome contributions to this page. Please email us with details.
Puffer companies often had naming policies. Hamiltons of Brodick used the suffix ‘cloy’. Also see www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?official_number=&imo=&a... What is a Puffer? A Clyde Puffer is a steam coaster which could carry cargo and deliver it without needing external equipment to unload it: a mini-bulk carrier. The length of most puffers was limited by the 70 ft (21.3 m) locks of the Forth and Clyde Canal, or the 88 ft (26.8 m) locks of the Crinan Canal. The official name for a puffer is a lighter. However, they were popularly named after the simple steam engines that the earliest canal-based boats used. These were single-cylinder engines with no condensers . This meant that the steam used was simply exhausted to the atmosphere through the funnel, leading to a distinctive ‘puff-puff’ sound. Later puffers used compound engines with condensers. This meant that the ‘puffing’ sound stopped, but the name puffer remained. The enduring popularity of the name meant that it was even used for diesel-engined boats. Puffers have gained a secure place in Scottish culture. They were made famous by the stories of author Neil Munro, who wrote about a fictional puffer captain, Para Handy, and his crew on the Vital Spark.
Visitor information for Inveraray including accommodation, things to do, attractions, events and food & drink.
Many thanks to David Shirres of the Linlithgow Canal Society for forwarding me an album of photos from their recent day charter on the Puffer. I have struggled to choose which photos to post as there were so many excellent ones. The map shows the route they followed. Turning in the basin ready to
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Seen in steam before conversion to diesel power. see puffersandvics.org/VIC84.htm See SMM ref 2018-055(046)
The Clyde Puffer had developed from the Dark ages, starting off with a coracle, through Viking longships to gabbarts. Somebody in 1880 or so had put a steam engine and a boiler in a sailing gabbart, found it difficult to see over the boiler whilst steering from a tiller at the stern and had created
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