Fascination with the
puffers
still continues.
The
Vital Spark is a fictional
Clyde puffer, created by
Neil Munro. As its captain, the
redoubtable
Para Handy, often says: "the
smertest boat in the coastin' tred".
Puffers
seem to have been regarded fondly even before Munro began
publishing his short stories in the Glasgow
Evening
News in 1905. This may not be surprising, for these small
steamboats were then providing a vital
supply link around the west coast and Hebrides
islands of
Scotland
. The
charming rascality of the stories went well beyond the reality of a
commercial shipping business, but they brought widespread fame.
They appeared in the newspaper over 20 years, were collected in
book form by 1931, inspired the 1953 film
The Maggie, and came out as three popular
television series, dating from 1959 to 1995.
The original BBC Series
Para Handy- Master Mariner, which
ran from 1959-60, starred
Duncan
MacRae (Para Handy),
Roddy
McMillan (The Mate), and
John
Grieve (Dan MacPhail, the engineer). For the short film to
accompany the 1963 album
Highland Voyage, the cast was
augmented by songwriter
Alex
MacKenzie, who appeared as The Engineer, causing Grieve to move
to play The Cook. In the second series,
The Vital Spark,
McMillan took the role of Para Handy, and Grieve reprised his role
as McPhail;
Walter Carr (Dougie the
Mate) and
Alex McAvoy (Sunny Jim)
completed the crew, and the series ran for two series between 1974
and 1976. The series also featured guest appearances from the cream
of British comedy acting such as
Fulton
Mackay,
Eric Idle,
Peter Sellers and
Richard Wilson. In 1994
BBC Scotland produced "The Tales Of Para Handy"
which starred
Gregor Fisher as in the
Lead role alongside
Sean Scanlan as
Dougie,
Andrew Fairlie as Sunny Jim
and
Rikki Fulton as Dan McPhail. The
series also featured a young
David
Tennant in one of his first acting roles.
The deck of a "puffer".
In her captain's own (islands accented) words, the
Vital
Spark is "aal hold, with the boiler behind, four men and a
derrick, and a watter-butt and a pan loaf in the foc'sle". The way
these
steam lighters with their steam-powered derricks
could offload at any suitable beach or small pier is featured in
many
Vital Spark stories, and allows amusing escapades in
the small west coast communities. The cargoes carried in the hold
vary from gravel or coal to furniture to livestock, the crew's
quarters in the forecastle are taken as lodgings by holidaymakers
or lost children and the steam engine struggles on under the dour
care of the engineer McPhail. Tales are recounted of improbably
dramatic missions in
World War I. Others
scoff at her as a
coal gaabbert, reflecting the origins of
the puffers, but an indignant Para Handy is always ready to defend
his boat, proudly comparing her speed and her looks with the
glamorous
Clyde steamers.
Eilean Eisdeal dressed as the
Vital Spark.
The stories sparked considerable interest in the puffers, and many
books explore their now vanished world.
When VIC 72,
renamed Eilean Eisdeal, ventured from her home at the
Inveraray
Maritime Museum to visit the Glasgow River
Festival in 2005, she proudly bore the name Vital
Spark in testimony to her continuing popularity.Now in
2006 she proudly
is the
Vital Spark of Glasgow
having been successfully re-registered.
The
Argyll brewer Fyne Ales, situated
close to Inveraray, where the current boat rests and Neil Munro was
born, produces a beer called Vital Spark
[82518]
in tribute to the series.
In
December 2007, the Vital Spark Clyde puffer returned to
the Forth and Clyde
Canal
- the place of her 'birth', as reported on stv news'[82519] Reporting Scotland.
A ship dressed as the
Vital
Spark at Crinan, in Argyll and Bute.
See also
External links
References
- Donald, Stuart, In the Wake of the Vital Spark,
Johnston & Bacon Books Ltd. 1994, ISBN 0-7179-4604-5 (ISBN
0-7179-4605-3 paperback)
- McDonald, Dan, The Clyde Puffer, David & Charles
(Publishers) ltd. 1977, ISBN 0-7153-7443-5
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