Solvay 96

Solvay 96, registration NY3019F, was built in 1930 at Choisy-le-Roi with a 25 hp Deutz engine.  The information on this page is obtained from Vagus-Vagrant.fr unless otherwise indicated.

Solvay 96 was purchased by Sablières Modernes and became a barge on the Saône River under the name Ocques and she has since been scrapped.

An undated photo of Solvay 96 with no location given either:

A postcard showing her passing through Charny-sur-Meuse in 1937:

This is her at Commercy and is thought to be from the 1950s before the cabin was upgraded:

An undated photo of Solvay 96 with no location provided: 

At the bottom left, is a sign on which is written, certainly in chalk, "venir", "ver" and "id"; by comparison with another photo we can bet that it says "1932 Winter Souvenir Void", that is to say that the photo was taken during the winter of 1932 in Void, the boats surely being caught in the ice:

Here she is on the Meuse:

Trapped in ice in 1959 with Solvay 94 on the Oise-Aisne canal:

Upon leaving the Vitry shipyard in 1963, its cabin had just been modernized and power steering had been installed on its upgraded 30hp engine; behind the coachroof, the casing housing the hydraulic system, topped by a railing, can be seen. The photo was taken in Nancy, just past the port of Malzéville, with the boat heading upstream; the door to the dry dock of the navigation service can be seen:

Solvay 96 in a lock in the valley of 70 (Montgon on the Ardennes), with a car in front, that's rare for a Solvay :

An article from L'Est Républicain dated July 23, 1979 concerning Solvay 96, but we need to correct what the journalist wrote, because in 1979 there were 33 barges left in the Solvay fleet:

• 1956, 110 units
• 1965, 93 units
• 1979, 33 units
• 1986, 8 units