Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

Painting of steam Clyde puffer SAXON (1925-1965) beached and unloading coal onto horse-drawn carts

Contributed by John Ferguson

What a wonderful painting.

   SAXON is beached and unloading her cargo of coal, maybe around 150 tons, into two horse-drawn carts, probably on an island.

Why coal ?   Look at the cart on the right side of the two.  It is piled high with a black mass.   Could it be tarry metal for surfacing a road ?   No, not very likely.   Tarry / tarred metal would need to be carried by lorries to the roadworks.

So that means coal.   The puffer is unloading by the two deckhands working in the hold and shovelling the coal into a large metal tub and the tub is lifted by the vessel’s ropes and wires and swung over the side and emptied into the carts on the beach.    The tub can be seen above the left-hand cart.   The mate of the ship is working the winch at the bow and the ship's master (in the painting wearing a white coloured pullover) is at the deck of the puffer and directing the movements of the unloading.

The carts would be owned by the crofters on the island.   Probably there are more than two carts involved in the discharging as everyone would need to be working hard to unload as much coal as possible from the puffer while it was beached and the tide was out.   No unloading was possible when the tide came in and the puffer would become afloat and the wheels of the carts would sink into the wet sand.