Csányi Marietta et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 25. (Szolnok, 2016)

Történeti tanulmányok - Kasza Csaba: What happened to the hungarian merchant shipping?

TISICUM XXV. - TÖRTÉNETI TANULMÁNYOK

Hungary13 and end of the war of independence14 15 led by Prince II. Rákóczi Ferenc a peaceful period and normal conditions commenced in the country boosting the economy including shipping. Yet the system has no changed until the appearance of the steam engine. The steam opened a new epoch in the technology and fundamentally changed the life of humankind. The Industrial Revolution arrived. Its intruduction in Hungary coincided with the Reform Era. As a consequence, the country started to become industrialized. An open-minded aristocrat count Széchenyi István16 took prominent part in this process. The technical inventions of the 19th century radically changed the shipping industry. The most significant change was that the old driving power - the wind, the oar, draught animals - were displaced by steam engine. The first steam ship that appeared on the Duna was built by the Hungarian Bern- hard Antal16 of Pécs in 1816. The ship was named „CAROLINA” after the emperor’s17 wife. The S/S18 „CAROLINA” was launched 21 March 1817 and had dimensions as follow: L = 13.37 m (length) B = 3.16 m (breadth) D = 1.02 m (depth)19 and was side-wheeler. It is worth to mention that the first steamer that appeared on Tisza was the S/S „DUNA” taking count Széchenyi István on board. It is a little known fact that the first propeller applied for ship was constructed by an another Hungarian mechanic Rössel József in Triest (Italy) between 1826 and 1829. The first vessel driven by two-blade propeller was the „CIVETTA”20 and it set sail on the Adriatic Sea on her maiden voyage. In these years another major change happened: one more major changing: as a result of progress of metallurgy, steel became the basic building material of ship-hulls. Due to these changes the modern ship was born. The first shipping company was founded in Bécs in 1829 namely Duna Gőzhajózási Társaság (Danube Steamshipping Company) what is still prospering as DDSG - Donau Dampfschiffahrts Gesellschaft. Also in these years Count Széchenyi had an idea popped up, to regulate the Duna and the Tisza to make the navigation safe on them. The idea was followed by act and the works were completed at the end of the century. After the Kiegyezés (the Compromise of 1867),21 a new political and economical era had began. The shipbuilding and the water transport gained ground. The reign of Ferenc József I, but mainly the last third of the 19th century was the age of the railway. The vast railroadings, the regulating of rivers, the dikings, building operations were in progress all over the empire. New lines of industry came into existence, the manufacturing industry and the mass-produc13 The war of liberation 1683-1699.

14 1703-1711.

15 Gróf (count) Széchenyi István (1791-1860) writer, politician, minister of transport.

16 Antal Bernhard (?- approx. 1829) technician, inventor.

17 In that time Hungary was ruled by the Habsburgs (1527-1921) - in 1816 I. Ferenc was the emperor and the Hungarian king (1804-1835).

18 S/S is for Steam/Ship. In the shipping industry every vessel has to bear such a distinctive abbreviation indicating the method of driving or type of ship.

19 General note: the „official” language of the maritime navigation and the shipbuilding is the English, but many words are archaic or have different meaning in the shipping usage comparing with the common English, (e.g. common eng. right = shipping eng. starboard).

20 Civetta an Italian word meaning owl’, but it means .flirt’, too and since sea-going vessels were named after women mostly in those times, most probably the second meaning is the real.

21 As a result the Compromise of 1867 the Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia (AustroHungarian Monarchy) came into being.

tion were born and these needed more and more raw materials. The machines made the agriculture more productive as well which meant more food to export. Demands appeared for luxury articles or exotic goods coming from other countries, continents which meant import. To transport all these items required more and more trains and ships, both seagoing and river ships. And the ships came, more and more contractors found good possibility in the water transport. Not only private ventures, but also shipping companies were established. The first shipping acts came into force. In 1883 Baross Gábor22 an outstanding economist and politician entered office as under-secretary of the later state minister of transport? He opened a new chapter in transport. Beside the development of railway, he modernized the Hungarian sea-port Fiume23 and in 1888 created a new company, namely „Magyar Államvasútak Hajózási Vállalata» (Shipping Company of Hungarian Railways). This company in 1893 had 12 steamers and 40 barges tranporting 166.000 passengers, 1.200 wagon live animals and 200.000 tons of goods. After Baross’ death, but following his conception, the next important step was the XXXVIth Act of 1894 which makes it possible to found an independent, entirely Hungarian shipping share company and also discusses about the relationship of the new corporation and the State. That indicates that shipping was extremely important - intensive and and it was Baross’ idea that the state has to take part in the life of a company in some form or other. He was right - it was proved later. On 24 January 1895 the „Magyar Folyam- és Tengerhajózási Részvénytársaság” (Hungarian River and Maritime Company Ltd.) was established. The MFTR took over the ships from MÁV, gradually got the fleet of other smaller companies and had new ships built mainly in Újpest24 shipyard. The company successfully expanded spreading the activities all along the Duna and tributaries thus raised considerable competition to DDSG. The ships of MFTR forwarded between 1895 and 1917 as yearly average 595.000 passengers and 557.000 tons of goods. The company in 1918 owned 38 passenger ships, 54 cargo steamers, 389 barges and 2 tank barges. After the outbreak of the World War I the continuous development of MFTR slowed down. At the end of the war it was broken, because the conditions of the peace treaty after the war were a grievous misfortune for the Hungarian shipping, so for the MFTR as well. Of ninety three ships and 215.000 tonnage under Hungarian flags less than half of them remained. The others, mainly the newest and most modern units were confiscated and handed over to the successor states.25 Of course this procedure meant prompt competition for the exsanguine company. To make the problems worse the Duna Convention was born on 23 June 1921. The Convention regulated the freedom of navigation on international waters of Duna and tributaries, on Száva and Temes, made the shipping for Hungary - now land-locked by enemy states - more difficult. Moreover, the general economic situation was pretty bad all over in the post-war Europe which was also a major setback for shipping. But with pertinacious efforts and subsidy the recovery has begun. The company endeavoured to adopt itself to the changed circumstances. First of all, in 1926 the MFTR joined to an agreement with the DDSG, SDDSG (Dél22 Baross Gábor (1848-1892) nicknamed as „iron minister”.

23 Now Rijeka in Croatia.

24 District of Budapest.

25 As a consequence of Trianon dictated peace (signed: 4 june 1920 Hungary as a defeated power lost 71 % of its territory giving a base for the newly created successor states Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia.

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