The outstanding Dutch expert, John Andrew Masjon, was born in Dordrecht in 1817. He worked on his father’s sailing ship as a child and obtained his Dutch captain’s certificate at the age of 19. He started working for steamship companies, but in addition to sailing, he was also interested in mechanical engineering and ship design. He developed his technical knowledge in a factory in Rotterdam. At the invitation of Count István Széchenyi, he became one of the captains of the DDSG and arrived at his new station, Óbuda, in early 1838. He quickly gained fame for playing a major role in rescuing people during the ice flood of 1838. That same year, he was appointed captain of the shipping section between Vienna and Linz, where he reduced the previous 60-hour journey to 14 hours. The popular captain was given the task of designing the first iron-hulled DDSG steamship. Masjon was appointed director of the Óbuda Shipyard in 1844, which resulted in the plant’s spectacular development. Although both the company and the workers were satisfied with his work as shipyard manager, he left the Óbuda plant at the end of 1856 due to differences of opinion regarding management. He then worked for the Hungarian Ministry of Trade, managing the regulation of the Tisza River as a ministerial commissioner. He died unexpectedly in 1858 of a stroke.
General managers
The position and work of the managers at Óbuda Shipyard (supervisor, director, acting director, factory commander, managing director, government commissioner) were significantly influenced by the current organizational structure of the plant, and the company or group of companies it belonged to. Unlike Hungarian factories, the Óbuda Shipyard often had foreign directors, which was justified by several reasons. Firstly, the parent company was owned by Austrians, and the factory managers were appointed there. Second, in the beginning there were no Hungarians with the desirable expertise available. Furthermore, the company changed ownership a few times: between 1938-1945 it was owned by Nazi Germany, and between 1945-1953 it was taken over by the communist Soviet Union.
The life of a factory is largely determined by its manager – his expertise, personality, decisions and relationship with the employees determine the efficiency of the entire industrial facility. The Óbuda Shipyard had about 30 general managers during its 190 years of operation (not counting the German and Soviet supervisors).
Keresés