25 of Neil Munro's captivating tales of Para Handy, captain of the "Vital Spark", the "smertest" steamboat ever to sail the River Clyde. These 25 stories hail from the first collection, and every one's a gem. You'll get to know the regular cast - not just Para Handy himself, but the ship's irascible and scary engineer, Macphail, never without a penny "novella" in his hand; then there's The Tar, the lazy deckhand - and who can forget Dougie, the superstitious ship's mate? Then there's the network of supporting characters - West Coast locals to a man (and woman) - canny, outspoken, lugubrious, eccentric . . . and huge fun.