Solvay 52, registration NY2782F, was built in 1924 at Villeneuve la Garenne with a 20 hp Kromhout engine that was later replaced with a Deutz 22 hp. All information, unless stated otherwise, is from Vagus-Vagrant.fr.
It ended its career as a Panama barge in the late 1960s. 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.
An early postcard of Solvay 52:
And a close up shot:
Solvay 52 had its bow cut off during the war and was
rebuilt identically, with rivets. Adrienne and Lucien Monnerat retrieved this
boat from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine after the war, with its bow cut off, and
brought it back to Dombasle. The original bow, in the 1930s:
The replaced bow at Toul in the 1950s:
Somewhere in northern France:
Solvay 52 was involved in the strikes of 1936. Here she is second from the left at Conflans:
A view of several Solvay boats moored with her:
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