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?

KASZA CSABA: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HUNGARIAN MERCHANT SHIPPING?

német Dunagőzhajózási Társaság) and the BLSG (Bajor Lloyd Hajózási Társaság) to perform the tranportation on the Duna collectively. It was a successful! rationalization, but the World Wide Crisis of 1929-1933 came and everything was in ruins again. The company fell into financial crisis. The government realised that saving the Hungarian shipping is essential! Therefore financial support was given, even the whole shipping industry - including the Hungarian shipbuilding - began to be developed. Successfully -the transport on the Duna grew, in 1934 the first Danube-seagoing ship the M/S „BUDAPEST”, in 1937-38 the first two diesel-electric driven rivergoing towing ships in Europe, the M/S „SZÉCHENYI” and M/S „BAROSS” were built in Hungarian shipyards! Against all odds, the ships of MFTR transported yearly 607.000 tons of goods and 2.353.000 passengers between 1918 and 1944. In 1944 the fleet consisted of 49 passenger, 50 cargo ships, 252 cargo and 18 tankbarges.

... and at the sea

Though the Hungarian kingdom got access to the sea when king Könyves Kálmán26 occupied Dalmácia and Horvátország (Dalmatia and Croatia) at the end of 11th century, in fact we can speak about Hungarian merchant marine only from the end of 19th century. At that time eleven Hungarian shipping companies resided in Fiume having 123 ships with

235.000 GRT!27 After the Trianon treaty, the Hungarian merchant shipping simply ceased to exist, Hungary became a land-locked country and was isolated both politically and economically, enclosed by not too friendly states. Therefore the government commenced to act, the first step was to create the Csepel Budapesti Nemzeti és Szabadkikötő (Budapest National and Freeport of Csepel) in 1928. The MFTR was in grave financial trouble by the well-known reasons, but the government realizing that keeping sea-going shipping alive is an essential interest for the economy, had not let the company go bankruptcy in 1932. On the contrary, it began to develop the sea shipping by a new method. Though Budapest is 1.647 km from the Black Sea, it was possibile to reach the sea, only a proper ship was needed which could navigate both on the Danube and at the sea. And the naval architects of the Ganz és Társa Rt. (Ganz and Co.) made it in Újpest shipyard. This ship was the M/S „BUDAPEST” with 493 GRT, and she28 was launched on 14 August 1934 as the first unit of the river-seafaring vessels and served till 1962. This kind of shipping proved rather effective. This type of vessel is still used world wide except Hungary. The last one that was built and launched in Hungary is M/S „JOLLIE” in 1993! In 1936 the govenment established a new shipping company - namely Duna Tengerhajózási Rt. (Danube Seashipping Co.) DTRT to help the export-import trade of the country outside Europe. The fleet increased year by year and on the beginning of the WWII there were eleven ships in service. Even during the war, two new ships were set into operation. By the end of war four ships remained. Fortunately, the shipbuildig industry came to alive pretty soon because there were no bridges, railways, not even roads, all of them were in ruins, so water transport became important in every respect. Against the difficulties the future of Hungarian shipping seemd to be promising, the DTRT existed till 1964 when merged into the MAHART.

26 Könyvves Kálmán (Coloman Beauclerc) Hungarian king (1095-1116).

27 GRT is for Gross Registered Tonnage what is volumetric unit determining all the space of a ship.

28 The ships are feminine in the English language.

An intermezzo

„I rang for ice, but this is ridiculous.” (Lady Astor)29

The World War II caused serious losses for the shipping again. More than two hundred units were sunk. Considerable part of the fleet feld to safeguard to the west. The rest was taken away as booty. The Soviet troops invaded the country and they plundered it systematically. They took everything: vehicles, machinery, even complete factories and also manpower to „malenki robot”.30 They took many innocent people who never returned, so shipping experts, too. But the almost meanless MFTR resumed the work. The raised wrecks were repaired and set again on duty. In 1946 these units were the base for a newly set up company: the Magyar-Szovjet Hajózási Részvénytársaság (MESZHART) - Hungarian- Soviet Shipping Co. The western Allies gave the ships fled to the west back to the Soviets and they gave them to MESZHART. It seemed, everything is going to be ok slowly, but in the meantime while the communists assumed power in the country with a little help from their Soviet friends. This was „dead end” for fifty years for the country. We asked for little ice an got a glacier. And this was the begining of the end for the Hungarian shipping as well, but in that moment nobody knew it. In 1947 the MFTR has been liquidated, the assets were brought into MESZHART. 1948 is an important year in the history of Duna shipping. The Belgrade Convention was signed and the Duna-Committee was created by the seven states alongside the Duna to regulate and control the shipping industry in the Duna basin. The Convention is still in operation. MESZHART continued the wreck shipping; there was no technical progress. In 1954 the Soviets quitted the losing MESZHART, and the Magyar Hajózási Részvénytársaság - Hungarian Shipping Co. was founded on 1 January 1955, owned by the state in 100%.

The time of MAHART

„A brave world, Sir, full of religion, knavery and change.”

(Aphra Benn)31

The MAHART at the beginning was an interesting communist formation. Nominally it was a corporation without stockholders (!) to suggest into western partners that the company stands on the same financial and legal base like e.g. the Hapag Lloyd. Of course this was not straight, because everything was in public possessions, the legislation did not know the corporative forms. Otherwise it was a large enterprise, involved all the fields of shipping industry: river and maritime navigation, passenger shipping, lake Balaton shipping, shipbuilding/repairing. Possessed many workshops, factories, firms, ports, real estates, resort houses and thousands of employees. It was furtune in the life of the company that Hungary had to pay the Soviet Union for the reparations for the war losses till 1993(1). The part of this indemnity were both river and sea-going ships being built in Újpest, Angyalföd and Óbuda shipyards. For this

29 Madeline Talmage Astor said this sentence after the Titanic’s collision with the iceberg.

30 „Malenki robot” is a special Hungarian phrase for the forced labour done by Hungarian citizens in the Soivet Union.

31 Aphra Benn (1640-1689), English writer.

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