World of Ships – May 2018

PADDLE STEAMERS

Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 59

Further work in 1965 included the

replacement of the original coal-fired boiler

with one salvaged and reconditioned from

the wreck of German paddle tug Regensburg,

sunk in the Hungarian stretch of the Danube

near the end of World War II. Kossuth was

MAHART’s Budapest local excursion vessel until

her withdrawal after the 1978 season. Static

roles followed as an accommodation vessel for

MAHART staff and as a floating Sanatorium.

During 1986 Kossuth was moored close to

the Chain Bridge in Budapest, operating as a

restaurant and with a small Danube shipping

museum on board until, in 1995, the museum

sub-contracted the vessel’s operation and

maintenance to private company Kossuth

Museum Ship. The hull was renovated in 2000 by

SKL at Komarno and Kossuth is now marketed

as the Venhajo Restaurant, run by Europa

Rendezvényiroda Kft, who operate modern

vessels on Danube cruises. They are also partners

in the Zoltan Foundation, which owns the

Neszmely Ship Museum, and provides technical

management for the museum on Kossuth.

PETOFI

BUILT 1920-26 at the MFTR yard in Komarom on a keel laid

down in 1918

MACHINERY Two-cylinder compound diagonal engine of

580hp

DIMENSIONS 60m x 8m (hull), 15.5m (over paddles)

PASSENGERS 1,450

This paddler was originally to be called

Jeno Focerzeg when work first started in

1918. However, the political landscape had
      changed once she was eventually completed
      in 1926 as Szent Laszlo. She had space for
      1,200 passengers and became most closely
      associated with sailings from Budapest to

Visegrad and Esztergom. In 1939 she was one

of 19 MAHART steamers interned at Passau

but, after returning to Budapest, she was put

into service almost immediately, and the name

Petofi was brought in during 1950.

Rebuilt in 1960, Petofi retained her bridge

and wheelhouse over the paddles amidships,

although a new oil-fired boiler by Yarrow

replaced the original Scotch boiler. Long

associated with cruises from Budapest to the

Danube bend, she replaced Kossuth, providing

short cruises from Budapest in 1979. After

her withdrawal in 1983, she was used as a

workers’ canteen until being moved to the

Boris Kidric shipyard at Apatin in Yugoslavia

in 1989, with the intention that she be

returned to serviceable condition.

Back at the MAHART yard at Budapest,

work on her superstructure stopped in 1990

due to a lack of finance and, despite plans for

a renovation with diesel-electric machinery,

nothing materialised. She is now part of the

Zoltan Society’s maritime museum collection.

ABOVE Restoration of Petofi for a return to service came to an end in 1990 due to lack of finance.

GROF SZECHENYI

BUILT 1940 at Werft Korneuburg, Vienna.

MACHINERY Two eight-cylinder 460HP Sulzer diesel

engines powering two Brown-Bouveri electric drive motors.

DIMENSIONS 77.7m x 8.4m (hull), 15.29m (over paddles)

PASSENGERS 860

Grof Szechenyi joined her sistership Stadt Wien

for service between Vienna and Passau as Stadt

Passau in 1940 and continued until 1942, when

services closed during the course of World War

II. Afterwards she sailed on the Vienna-Passau

service until its closure after the 1985 season

and she returned during the brief revival from

1991 to 1995. Stadt Passau was sold to the

German city from which she took her name and

remained laid up there for many years until

being bought by a Hungarian businessman,

Kornel Foldi, for a nominal sum on the basis

that he would renovate her and run her in

service from Budapest to Passau.

There was a move to Budapest for renovation

in August 2001, but, with a return to service

in prospect, her owner was shot dead aboard

the vessel. Stadt Passau was renamed

Captain Daniel in 2002 and later moved to

a shipyard at Komarno for restoration and

engineering work. She was renamed Grof

Szechenyi in December 2006 after sale to

new owners, Greenhill Rendezvenyiroda

Zrl, and returned to Budapest in 2007,

subsequently being refurbished to a high

standard. The vessel is available as a

restaurant and for other functions.

ABOVE Abandoned but still looking imposing, the Danube steamer best remembered for service as

Felszabadulas from 1950 into the late 1970s.

ABOVE Well remembered from DDSG Vienna-

Passau service as Stadt Passau, Grof Szechenyi now

fulfills a static role as a Budapest restaurant and

function ship.

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