58 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers
CHAPTER EIGHT
HUNGARY
H
ungary can lay claim
to producing the River
Danube’s first steam
vessel, with the tug
Carolina appearing
in 1830 a few months
before the Austrian
paddle steamer Franz 1 made the epic first
Vienna-Budapest round trip. The Austrian
First Danube Company (DDSG) became the
dominant Danube force, and even had their
principal shipbuilding yard on Hungarian soil
in the Obuda district of Budapest.
The Hungarian State eventually inspired
the formation of Magyar Folyam-Es
Tengerhajozasi (MFTR) in 1895. Services
began the following year using a selection of
second-hand vessels, including some bought
from DDSG. Despite losses, MFTR still had
a fleet of 84 vessels at the end of World War
I and then completed a building programme
that had started in 1914 ,which included the
paddle steamer Kossuth, which remains at
Budapest as a restaurant and museum ship.
Another MFRT veteran, Petofi, also survives,
although out of service since 1984. A major
refit started in 2008 remains unfinished.The Hungarian fleet suffered badly in
World War II, with losses through bombing
and mining, and in 1944 most of the surviving
passenger vessels were moved to the Upper
Danube by the retreating Germans and were
later interned by American forces in the
Engelhartszell and Passau areas. The Soviet-
dominated Magyar-Szovjet Hajozasi RT was
formed in 1947 and secured enough vessels to
resume services. The present Magyar Hajozasi
RT (MAHRT) came into being in 1955, when a
major building programme started, but only a few
steamers already restored managed to survive.
These included Deak Ferencz, last survivor
of a MFTR quartet of long-distance steamers
that for many years were regarded as the
fastest Danube vessels. She ran until suffering
a boiler failure in 1971, and was used in
static roles for a further eight years before
being scrapped. Another notable Hungarian
paddler was the twin-funnel day steamer
Felszabadulas, which took that name in
1950 after being competed as Szoke Tisza in
Budapest during 1917.
After World War I there was a return to
day trips from Budapest to the Danube Bend,
before the vessel was converted in 1958 torun overnight trips, with berths for 175, as far
downstream as the Iron Gates and Orsova.
Withdrawn in 1976, Felszabadulas spent time
as a floating discotheque before sale to the city
of Szeged. She was then purchased by a cruise
operator for a restoration that never started.
Felszabadulas was scrapped in 2012 after
melting ice caused the hull to crack with the
vessel subsequently sinking.
The last operational Hungarian paddler was
the cabin steamer Budapest, one of the large
Russian 737 series dating from the 1950s.
She was used by the Hungarian Council of
Trades Unions (SZOT) until withdrawn with
a defective boiler in 1986. The diesel-electric
paddle vessel Stadt Passau from the Austrian
DDSG fleet has been in Hungarian waters
since 2001, and despite being lavishly fitted
out as Grof Szechenyi fills only a static role,
having been berthed at Budapest, Ujpest since- The sound of paddle beats returned to
Lake Balaton in 2015, with a replica of the
1846 steamer Kisfaludy introduced, although
diesel machinery also drives a stern propeller.
KOSSUTH
BUILT 1914 by Ganz-Danubius, Budapest
MACHINERY Two-cylinder compound diagonal engine of
580hp; converted to oil fuel 1993
DIMENSIONS Length 62.4m, width 8m (hull), 16m (over
paddles)
PASSENGERS 1,350.The survival of Kossuth in a static role is down
to co-operation between a leading Budapest
restaurant chain and the Hungarian Transport
Museum. Built as Ferencz Ferdinant
Foherczeg and designed to carry up to 1,200
passengers, she was renamed Rigo in 1919
and Leanyfalu in 1930. The steamer was
held at Passau in the closing years of World
War II before being returned in 1946 for an
almost complete rebuilding, with new bows
and superstructure bringing a 150-passenger-
capacity increase to 1,350.BELOW Kossuth, in another Budapest view, still
carrying MFRT funnel markings.ABOVE Although looking set for her next voyage, former MAHRT steamer Kossuth has not sailed since
1978 and is now employed in a static role as a restaurant and Museum at Budapest.08 Paddlers_Hungary_NL.indd 58 17/04/2018 12:16