Clyde Puffer at Scarinish - a photo on Flickriver

            This image was taken from near the Scarinish (Scottish Gaelic: Sgairinis) Hotel on the island of Tiree (Scottish Gaelic: Tiriodh), the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It was taken in the summer of 1957 by my father.

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 eventually achieved an almost-mythical status thanks largely to the early-20th century short stories Neil Munro wrote about the fictitious Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy, which later resulted in three television series.

Clyde puffers characteristically had bluff bows, crew's quarters with table and cooking stove in the focsle, and a single mast with derrick in front of the large hold. The funnel and ship's wheel stood aft above the engine room, followed by a small captain's cabin in the stern. When publication of the Vital Spark stories began in 1905 the ship's wheel was still in the open, but later a wheelhouse was added aft of the funnel giving the puffers their distinctive image. Their flat bottom allowed them to beach and unload at low tide, essential to supply remote settlements without suitable piers. Typical cargoes could include coal and furniture, with farm produce and gravel sometimes being brought back.

In this instance, there's a truck on the jetty and men working to load/unload the puffer. There's also men on the other side of the jetty, one descending or having just ascended one of the ladders. Looking at the boats stretching out their moorings to the right of the jetty it would appear that the tide is still on the ebb at this point.

The low-lying island of Tiree (highest point 141m above sea level), south-west of Coll, has an area of 30.2 square miles and a population of around 650. The machair lands are highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and fishing are the main sources of employment for the islanders. Tiree, along with Colonsay, enjoys a relatively high number of total hours of sunshine during the late spring and early summer compared to the average for the UK. Tiree is a popular windsurfing venue and is a proposed location for an offshore wind farm. Tiree has been referred to as the "Hawaii of the north".

Its name derives from Tìr Iodh, 'land of the corn', from the days of the 6th century Celtic missionary and abbot St Columba (d. 597). Tiree provided the monastic community on the island of Iona, south-east of the island, with grain. During WWII, a large RAF station was built on Tiree, becoming Tiree Airport in 1947. There was also an RAF Chain Home radar station at Kilkenneth and an RAF Chain Home Low radar station at Beinn Hough. In the Cold War, there was RAF Scarinish, a ROTOR radar station at Beinn Ghott.

Scanned from a slide.

Taken in: UK / Scotland / Scarinish (show map)

Taken on: June 1, 1957

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Clyde puffer

puffer

cargo

ship

vessel

coal-fired

steam-powered

steam

steamboat

jetty

pier

harbour

rocks

beach

seaweed

truck

men

working

unloading

ebbing tide

ebb

tide

blue

green

white

shore

shoreline

seascape

seaside

coast

coastline

sea

island

clear skies

Scarinish

Tiree

Inner Hebrides

Hebrides

Scotland

Scottish

1957

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