page_title: Clyde puffer
section_title: Surviving craft
hierarchical_section_title: Clyde puffer / Surviving craft
caption_attribution_description: English: The en:Clyde Puffer MV Spartan at the en:Scottish Maritime Museum in en:Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. Rosser 21:11, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
context_page_description: The Clyde puffer is a type of small coal-fired and single-masted cargo ship, built mainly on the Forth and Clyde canal, and which provided a vital supply link around the west coast and Hebrides of Scotland.
  Built between 1856 and 1939, these stumpy little steamboats achieved an almost mythical status thanks largely to the short stories Neil Munro wrote about the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, which produced three television series.
context_section_description: A small number of puffers survive as conservation projects, though most have diesel engines,
  VIC 32 
  is one of the last few surviving coal-fired steam-powered puffers and is based at The Change House, Crinan. She was built by Dunston’s of Thorne, Yorkshire in November 1943 – a busy time for the Clyde Ship building yards. As the wartime Admiralty needed 50, (later 100) victualling boats in a hurry, they were built in groups of three by various yards in England. No new designs were needed as the perfect boat existed in a Clyde Puffer.
  Steam sailings on VIC 32 have been available to the public from 1979, latterly as cruises on the Caledonian Canal. From 2004 she underwent extensive refitting at Corpach Boatyard at the west end of the canal near Fort William, funded by donations and lottery funds. After fitting of a new boiler by Pridham’s Engineering and Corpach Boatbuilders, she steamed down from Fort William to Crinan, from where cruises on the Caledonian Canal have now re-commenced.   
  Vic 56 was built by Pollock, of Faversham in 1945. She is preserved in working order at Chatham Historic Dockyard, regularly steaming in the Thames and Medway estuaries. 
  Vic 96 was built by Dunstons of Thorne, South Yorkshire, in 1945, and after disposal was restored at Maryport. The restoration was completed in 2009, retaining its steam engine, boiler and winch.
  On 8 August 2009, VIC 96 arrived at her new home, Chatham No. 1 Basin, after an epic 1,000 miles voyage from Elizabeth Dock, Maryport, which took five weeks.
  VIC 27 was built at Rowhedge Ironworks. She was renamed Auld Reekie, and starred as the Vital Spark in the third BBC TV Para Handy series, was berthed at Crinan Basin for 14 years deteriorating. She was purchased (Oct 2006) by the owner of the Inveraray Maritime Museum who carried out some work on her but she has since been resold to a new owner who has already started on her major restoration work. As she is the oldest surviving steam-powered puffer in existence she must be restored and preserved as part of Scotland's heritage afloat.
  VIC 72, renamed Eilean Eisdeal, continued in operation as the last of the true working "puffers" into the mid 1990s. In 2006 she was again renamed as Vital Spark of Glasgow after the Inveraray writer Neil Munro's Para Handy stories. She is now accessible to the public, alongside the Arctic Penguin at the Inveraray Maritime Museum, and continues to make sailings.
  The Spartan, another diesel-engined "puffer", is on display at the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine. "Spartan" has recently undergone restoration work on her hull, and is still being refitted. The museum also features the diesel-powered motor coaster MV Kyles at Irvine (an early Clyde built coaster, not a puffer).
  The Pibroch, built at Bowling, West Dunbartonshire in 1957 as a diesel-engined boat for the Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd, had been lying at Letterfrack, County Galway, Ireland, in desperate need of restoration, since 2002. The Pibroch deteriorated further as time passed, and her bulkheads began to give way. In 2010 she was
  sold and was subsequently scrapped. A sister-ship, the Julia T., Lies in 30 m of water in Killary Bay some 300 yards off Lettergesh.
  There have also been reproduction puffers built to a smaller size, most recently the MV Mary Hill  for tourist traffic on the Forth and Clyde canal.
caption: MV Spartan at Irvine
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