The first succesful attempt of Danube-sea shipping related to commercial activities was motivated by the 1934. IV. Hungarian law. The Rotterdam-Alexandria-Budapest-Alexandria-Rotterdam voyage of a Rhein-sea ship, the APOLLINARIS III, in charter of the newly established Hungaro-Egyptian Commercial Co. Ltd. commanded by captains Gramantik, Bornemissza and Kádár opened a new chapter in the history of Hungarian merchant marine. Moreover, the whole concept of Danube-sea shipping was enhanced by the fact that the elder son of governor Horthy was asked to be Hungypt's director.
This succesful voyage and growing demands from the Levante urged the financial and commercial government to take further steps in this matter. Based on the characteristics of the above mentioned ship, taking her Dutch slippers form as a model, m/v BUDAPEST the first Hungarian Danube-sea going vessel was built on account of the treasury. She was first operated by the Hungarian river navigation company MFTR. She was soon followed by another very similiar but somewhat larger ship the SZEGED which was also built at Ganz in Angyalföld. Before the SZEGED was launched the treasury bought Burgers' small steamer the DUNA which then became the prototype of later Danube-sea going ships in form, arrangement and capacity. The first such vessel had been launched under the name TISZA and she was already taken over by the 1936 founded DTRT Royal Hungarian Danube-Sea Navigation Company because MFTR could not manage more sea ships and as it has been revealed since it was counterinterested as well.
History of DTRT was a succes from the very beginning. The company's board of officers was small, professional and very well educated, sea captains whith shipping experience on the Rhine or African rivers were hired. Its operation was helped by MFTR's agents on the Danube and from Braila to Alexandria they commissioned forwarders and brokers who knew local affairs well. Graduates of the Fiume Maritime Academy could be found all over the world after the Great War so captains of DTRT ships who had studied at the the same institute always had comrades, helpers at each ports they visited. The company established by the state carried out its activity between Budapest and the ports of Levante with profitability never seen before contradicting those opinions which would have taken routes through Fiume with cargo shifts more appropriate. In the summer of 1939 the fifth unit of DTRT, the m/v KASSA, was taken over. The only distinction compared to the m/v TISZA was that she was equipped with rotating Demag cranes instead of derricks.
Only a few month after the KASSA had been launched the German Empire attacked Poland and the war soon was extended onto the whole world. The so called "homecoming" ships had their shares of the conflict, too. In the seconf half of November, 1939 the s/s DUNA was captured off Piraeus and escorted to Malta by a British cruiser. Her cargo had been confiscated then she was let off. In December she was already on Turkish waters along whith her fleetmate m/v TISZA when they were again captured. The TISZA was escorted to Malta but the DUNA having already been looted was let free. To avoid further attrocities DTRT sent cpt. Kádár to negotiate in London. With the help of the company's local representative he signed a special agreement with the Ministry of War Supply. After this in the spring of 1940 the KASSA and the DUNA took a last Levante run but after declaration of war by Italy in June DTRT ships only called at Bulgarian, Turkish and Greek ports. On the last night of April, 1940 s/s DUNA was grounded in a gale on the Black Sea at Podima and she broke apart. DTRT's next vessel was already being built at the Ganz Shipyard at that time. During fights of the Germans at Greece the KASSA transported supply to Piraeus where she was nearly lost when a German ship exploded next to her. Following this DTRT's fleet got confined into the Black Sea. From the end of June 1941 Hungary became a warfaring nation, too. This time around the UNGVÁR the sixth ship of the company was already in service and the next one, the KOLOZSVÁR, was under construction. All DTRT vessels except the SZEGED were chartered by the Germans for war transports. The SZEGED had been sailing on the Budapest-Varna-Istambul line for a while fulfilling Hungarian commercial demands, later she stationed in Istambul on a special commission. Airdefense guns were mantled on the bows and sterns of the other ships and German soldiers embarked to handle them. These ships were under command of Marinegruppenkommando Süd and usually transported aircraft benzine and bombs from the Lower-Danube ports and Constanza to Crimia and the Azov Sea. Of the seven units of DTRT - by this time the KOMÁROM had been completed as well - four were entirely or partly devastated during the war. The UNGVÁR hit a mine on the Black Sea at the beginning of November, 1941. 12 Hungarians died in this tragedy. The KOLOZSVÁR was air torpedoed in January of 1943, her stern exploded and burned out. 7 of her Hungarian crew were lost. Her hull remained floatable and she was towed to Budapest for repairs. The KOMÁROM that was just completed and was fitted out in the Angyalföld yard of Ganz got a hit during an air raid in the fall of 1944. During the fights in Budapest the TISZA suffered some damage too, so she was unable to leave the yard for Austria. The surviving three ships, the BUDAPEST, the SZEGED and the KASSA, loaded with documents and archives of Budapest Port and Maritime Authority and also with materials purchased earlier for new DTRT ships escaped to the Upper-Danube along with other retrieving inland navigation ships. The Num. VIII. Ship (SZOLNOK, her intended name was ÚJVIDÉK) which had been already completed but not outfitted was towed up, too. End of the war found them in Germany. Other ships ordered by DTRT partly completed or lying in their material had to be left at the yard in Angyalföld. The three ships and the completed hull fell in the hands of the Americans on the Upper-Danube in the spring of 1945, the other two vessels left home and waiting for repairs and rebuilding fell in Soviet hands, so did steel building material ordered for construction of six new vessels.
On Soviet pressure the Hungaro-Soviet Shipping Company MESZHART was formed in the spring of 1946 and besides river navigation Danube-sea shipping was given to it as its task. DTRT was existing without ships. Of the ships left home the TISZA was completed first and was transferred into the new company. The Soviets did not see it neccessary to put anything from the stolen material into the company. The KOLOZSVÁR as URAL, the KOMÁROM as DESNA and SZOLNOK (refloated and towed back from Austria) as MANICH became Sovtorgflot property as war prize. And this was only the beginning! As soon as building the hull commenced in 1943 to replace the UNGVÁR was finished it was taken away named SIMEIZ. Steel plates left at the Ganz yard and intended for DTRT ships were used to build the KOREIZ, DON, KALMIUS, MASSANDRA, LIVADIA in the framework of war indemnity. The fate of those remained trapped on board of DTRT ships in Austria were not promising either. By the end of 1946 many sailors left their ships, even though DTRT did everything to bring its ships back home. Homecoming was postponed time after time. Crews were involved in maintaining their ships, the BUDAPEST's engines were even replaced in Deggendorf. Continously diminishing crews were to be filled up with seamen sent from home but there were always more that left than those came then it was given up. Lakos the new and Roediger the old directors negotiated until the Americans gave in at last and the ships could return home in 1947. After short repairs they were lined up along the TISZA in the MESZHART fleet. Only the KASSA went through an overhaul and was renamed to DEBRECEN because of the repeated territorial change after the war (KASSA is now in Slovakia). Nothing changed seemingly, the ships sailed as normal between Budapest and the Levante. They conquerred back their old markets along their usual lines. Reputation of Hungarian merchant marine was the warranty and our sailors coped with this new situation, too. Only something was brewing in the deep! Best captains were forced ashore doing office works, at worst cases they were locked in labor camps. The quick officer courses were filled up with men attended only six grade elementary school. The output of MESZHART's four ships reached its maximum in the crazy workrace of that era and it could not be increased without jeopardizing ships and men even though demands grew steadily. These small ships carried everything from oillamps to the Heluan bridge elements which could be loaded into them. Leadership of the company turned to the government for loans in vain, it was still not possible to buy new ships. Capacity of Hungary's shipyards was entirely bound to construct ships in indemnity. Between 1947-55 there were 65 sea-going ships built to the USSR. In spite of this the Soviet co-owner did not apported a single vessel in the company.
A solution loomed when MESZHART finished its activity. In 1954 the Soviet party left the company and management of the river-sea ships was taken over by the so far sleeping old company DTRT. Although with state help the company's directors managed to purchase new ship from loan already in the first business year. She was named BÉKE got registered in 1955 and was one of the 1100 tons ships built in series at the Ganz Yard in Angyalföld. This ship was built for deep sea service but she was used on the usual Levante route with exception that she sailed up the Danube only to Braila. The m/v BÉKE was followed in the summer of 1956 by the same type BALATON then in the spring of 1957 by the DUNA. In certain sense times changed following the 1956 revolution and this resulted in better economic conditions. Based on earlier experiences of river-sea shipping the main characteristics, arrangement and form of a new generation of Danube-sea vessels was worked out and the first unit, the m/v HAZÁM, was built. The main goal at the construction of this vessel was to increase Danube loading capacity which was to be achieved by diminishing the ship's own weight by every possible way. New strong steelplates were used, instead of rivetted hull welded structure was applied which meant twenty tons saving in itself. The prototype was built with twin bottom, her capacity was 1250 tons and the output of her two Láng main engines was 1600 HP. Running the ship required a large crew of 23 but this meant no problem at that time. In 1956 the HAZÁM was completed and started sailing in service of DTRT. As transport demands grew steadily new ships were launched one after another: in 1959 m/v TOKAJ and BADACSONY, in 1960 the CSEPEL and TIHANY, in 1962 the BORSOD and SZEGED, in 1963 the DUNAÚJVÁROS. After eight new units were placed in service old vessels could be written off. First the "small" SZEGED had been laid up after 25 years of service before her new fleetmate was handed over to the company in 1961. Next year the "small" BUDAPEST was whitdrawn from service after 28 years of service she was followed by the 25 years old TISZA, then in 1965 the DEBRECEN (ex KASSA). The SZEGED was used for a long time as a depot ship in the Freeport of Csepel and newly recruited sailors were trained on board. Later on she was converted with the BUDAPEST and the TISZA to rubber storage in the Áfor inlet. The hull of the TISZA still exist today at Szeged (she burned out and was scrapped up since). Her two elder mates could not avoid their fates either, in 1989 they were scrapped up in Angyalföld right opposite to the place where they had been launched. The DEBRECEN became a depot ship in the shiprepair yard at Angyalföld, nowadays she is awaiting as property of MATE Hungarian Seaman's Association to be converted to a museum ship on which historic documents and relics of Hungarian Marine could be displayed (currently she is part of the ship museum in Neszmély owned by the Zoltán foundation). Not only writting off ships made the fleet smaller. The BÉKE, our first deep sea ship sank in an unfortunate shipwreck in August. She lost in a collision with the Italian SAN GIORGO in the Dardanelles. The Italian vessel completelly cut off the fore peak of the BÉKE that was moving slowly with her tow. The aft part was hooked onto the fore part of the Italian ship by the cross section of her derrick so the crew could be rescued by the Italians. Developments were not finished with the HAZÁM serie. New alterations were carried out on this type of ships. Hull was broadened and derricks were replaced with rotating cranes. In 1964 the SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR was handed over with this new arrangement but not to the DTRT but to the newly reorganised MAHART which took over the entire fleet of DTRT.
József Horváth: What happens to you Hungarian sea navigation? Aqua Magazin, vol. 8-9-10., 2001.
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