Solvay 81

Solvay 81, registration NY3135F, was built in 1932 at Villeneuve la Garenne with a 30hp Deutz engine.  When Solvay sold her she was renamed Anchor.  Unless stated otherwise all information is taken from Vagus-Vagrant.fr.  

Solvay 81 was purchased by Sablières Modernes and became a barge on the Saône River under the name Ancre. Since then she has been scrapped. 

To start this page, here she is in Dombasle on a postcard, second up on the right:

Closeup of the above:

A magnificent document from the Image’Est website: it is a photo taken on a Saarland construction site around 1945 by a man named Maurer, on which the Marleine is having its nose repaired, and we can also see a bit of Solvay 81:

Here's a postcard from Verdun (written in 1966), showing Solvay 81. It's not immediately obvious that it's number 81, but the photo was shown to the Solvay expert, Denis Amand, who said he thought it was number 81, and gave me the name of the bargeman walking on the gunwale.  So, it was shown to the bargeman, Norbert Parent, and his wife Sylviane (author of the books " A Fleet Named Solvay " and " Solvay Fleet - The Red Noses ") and they confirmed, it is indeed the Solvay 81, Norbert's parents' boat:

An undated photo of the classic crew and family pose:

Another undated but clearly early photo, the inscription reads Expedition of the Rhine:

Loading bags of soda in 1958:

At Cambrai docks in 1960:

In the shipyard at Châlon-sur-Saône in 1962:

At the time this photo was taken, the captain of the Solvay 81 was René Parent (he was Norbert's father, Sylviane’s husband). He took over the boat in 1958 and it was in the shipyard in Chalon-sur-Saône for modifications in 1962; that's when the forward portholes were removed. So this photo dates from between 1958 and 1962:

In 1962, at Baesrode, on the tidal Scheldt, on the mudflats at low tide: 

Iced in at Euville on the Meuse in 1963:

Moored with Solvay 93 on the Meuse in 1963:

Waiting to go into the Foug tunnel on the Marne-Rhine canal in 1963:

In the summer of 1964, during a shutdown of the Canal de l'Est, a group of Solvays in Donchery: Solvay 123, 122, 81, 87 and 84:

Solvay 81 and 110 in Nancy in July 1967, with Sylviane’s husband Norbert as a soldier and his father René:

A similar picture with more Solvays:

An unknown picture that I found on the web so I'm checking with Vagus-Vagrant: