Of all the vessels that have worked in British coastal waters no type was better loved than the Clyde puffer. Millions laughed at the antics of skipper Para Handy and the indomitable crew of the Vital Spark as portrayed on BBC television. For more than a century the sturdy little vessels, miniature bulk carriers of coal, sand, granite chips, grain and like cargoes, were familiar craft on Clyde, West Highland and other Scottish coastal waters. They entered nooks and crannies where other vessels would not, or dared not go. They went to remote places among the lochs and islands where the visit of the puffer provided the sole link with the outside world. Lack of a pier was no obstacle to the puffer. Her crew would beach her, unload the cargo on the sand and sail away on the next tide. If beaching was impracticable she would drop a cargo of coal in the shallows and the customers would wade in and pick it up. If somebody wanted sand the puffer-men would dredge it from under their keel and take it to the required destination. Dan McDonald is a landsman who has won the respect of captains and crews of the puffer fraternity for his enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, a craft which he has made a lifelong study. He is one of the few landsmen to have sailed with the puffermen on their voyages. His puffer talks have delighted Glasgow audiences over the years. Now Mr McDonald has been prevailed upon to put his knowledge on paper and supplement it with photographs, mostly of his own taking, showing the many aspects of the puffer world.