Solvay 108, registration NY3109F, was built in 1931 at Choisy-le-Roi with a 30 hp Deutz engine. Other than where indicated the contents of this page are taken from Vagus-Vagrant.fr.
This was the Parent's boat, the only Solvay to remain captained by the same family all the while Solvay owned it. Some of the captions that follow are translated from Sylviane Parent's notes.
It was on this boat that our daughter Cathy was born, in Ambly-sur-Meuse. She was the last baby to be born on a Solvay barge; before her, there were many. There were other Solvay babies later, but the mothers gave birth in maternity wards; Cathy was the last to be born on a barge. A little anecdote: when Norbert went to register her at the town hall of Ambly, it had been 19 years since there had been a birth in the town.
In Verdun, in September 1970, we were heading back upriver
loaded with coal from Stein (in Holland) to Metz. We had stopped to visit our
daughter Cathy at the Verdun hospital (I had given birth on the previous trip!):
At Liverdun, downstream from the lock, in January 1971, we
were with Solvay 61:
In Namur, Grands-Malades lock, in 1971, with the Almi:
Merelbeke lock, on the Scheldt river, in 1972:
Again in Verdun, empty, in 1973: we were moored at the Quai
de Londres, opposite the officers' mess, for a few days. And that's where, one
morning, we were woken by shouts and the fire brigade, because during the
night, some innocent hand had decided to cut our mooring lines! We were 5 metres
from the Pont Chaussée when we restarted the engine to return to our mooring.
The awning had a close call, and luckily it was summer and there was no
flooding:
Solvay 108 in Strasbourg:
In Givet on the Meuse in 1973:
Here's Solvay 108 being unloaded at Gennevilliers:
Zooming out, the empty Solvay 119 can be seen cruising by:
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