Solvay 44

Solvay 44, registration NY2567F, was built in 1915 and was one of two Solvays built at Speyer, the other was Solvay 43.  She was originally bought by their Sarralbe factory and then sold to the Dombasle factory in 1921 for 12,000.38 Francs.  She was motorized in 1928. All information on this page is sourced from Vagus-Vagrant.fr unless otherwise stated. 

Solvay 44 became a Panama barge in 1958.  The small Solvay barges assigned to the Dombasle-Sarralbe service and the return trip carrying coal from the Saar to Dombasle were called the "Panamas". These boats didn't have a permanent crew. Their drivers were employees of the CGTVN (Compagnie Générale de Transports du Nord), the electric loco barge towing company, and later of Bargest. They would swap boats mid-journey when they met another one coming from the opposite direction, as did the locos. The control centre for this traffic had its office in Dombasle near the Pierre Escuras bridge. The first person in charge was Alfred Piant, whose sister ran the Spar grocery store at lock 22 in Dombasle. Two or three large Solvay barges ended their careers this way. Often, after years as Panama barges, they were scrapped in the dead end of the Dombasle port.

Captain Pora and his family:

Quote from Sylviane Parent: Christian Pora, my maternal uncle, was employed for a few years at Solvay, where he was captain on Solvay 44, but he is better known among bargees as a lock keeper. After working as a lock keeper in Flavigny-sur-Moselle in the 1960s, then at lock 13 in Laneuveville on the junction canal, and a brief stint in La Madeleine, he finished his career at lock 25 in Laneuveville in the early 1980s. Even in retirement, he was often called upon to pilot boats all over France.