Puffer unloading barley - probably at Port Charlotte

This picture shows just how difficult even the most basic tasks used to be just a few years ago.  The puffer is evidently unable to get into the beach, which at Port Charlotte is quite rocky and difficult, particularly at high tide.  The bags of barley for the distillery would therefore have to be lifted out of the puffer into flit boats, rowed close inshore, and there lifted onto carts to be pulled up to the distillery by horses.  The time and labour involved is almost unimaginable by our modern standards.