Spilt Wine

44. Vrouwe Catharina

Tuesday 29 April 1986

While the gendarme went down the street to fetch croissants for our breakfast, I phoned Jean-Luc to ask about moving Vrouwe Catharina.

"She's on the bottom, she has sunk. Where are you? What has happened? I tried to call yesterday many times."

"That's not good. How did –"

"Office de la navigation want it moved immediately. You must do something."

"Have you seen in the papers about the two killed gendarmes?"

"Yes, terrible ... No! You're not involved in that too, are you?"

"Sadly, yes, and we can't leave here, we're under a protective security guard. Philippe is still out there, not very stable and most likely looking for us ... So, on to much brighter things, our sunken barge, how did it happen?"

Jean-Luc gave a quick synopsis. He had gone up to the site and talked with the lockkeeper to get the story from him. The péniche skipper had reported the collision as a glancing one, a prolonged grating of metal on metal as the barge was pulled from her mooring and accelerated along the canal. There was no damage apparent other than a burst fender and a large area of paint scrubbed to bare metal. After the confusion and after the gendarmes had left, the two éclusiers had hauled her along the remaining short distance to the bollards above the lock, and they secured her there.

When the lockkeeper came out after lunch to prepare for an upbound, he noticed the barge was very low in the water. Her deck disappeared less than an hour later. Her wheelhouse and the curve of the top of her forward house were all that showed a short while later. Jean-Luc ended with, "It looks to be a slow leak, probably a ruptured weld somewhere." Then he added, "I contacted your insurer. Have they contacted you yet?"

"No, we were away on an involuntary tour of the Hautes Côtes, and we weren't here to answer the phone. Probably some of the blank messages. I'm sure they'll try again this morning."

The sunken barge took our minds off Philippe for a short while, but we soon ran into a reminder of him again as the gendarme returned with a paper wrap of croissants. "We're trapped here," Catherine said as she unwrapped the croissants. "We can't even get our own food."

"We can do a lot from here. The situation doesn't control us. We can find ways to make it work."

"What can we do from here?"

"We don't need to be anywhere near Vrouwe Catharina for a long while. The insurers will figure out how to re-float her and how to get her to dry dock. Those are their responsibilities and their expenses, not mine. Expenses will be covered quickly, then the insurers will have to sort out later between them, the péniche's insurers and mine. Sort which will cover the loss or what portion of it each will take." I started pulling the espressos.

"They'll have to repair the hull damage that caused the leak. A damage survey will be commissioned, and it is extremely remote that the thin plating has eroded much in three years. It will almost certainly still measure above three point five millimetres, well above the French limit." With the portafilters in place, I pressed the machine's button.

"The cause of the sinking, as Jean-Luc hinted, was likely a cracked weld. It could also have been from tearing on sharp rocks along the canal bank. Rubble and riprap are frequently used to strengthen the banks. Except near the locks or in regular mooring places, the canal banks are risky to approach without a careful watch and at any speed above dead slow."

I set the two coffees on the table, sat down and began unwrapping the point from a croissant as I continued. "Her interior will most likely be condemned by any surveyor, and the insurer will have to replace it. Probably no great damage to the engine and machinery, but it will all need to be cleaned, overhauled and made operational. Our survey report will clearly show her condition before the accident. When I negotiated the insurance coverage with AXA, I had opted for replacement value, which is restored to the condition at purchase."