The legendary ship captain of the DDSG, Ferenc Tanos, was born in 1883 in the settlement of Gönyű. He followed in the footsteps of his father, an illustrious figure of Hungarian river navigation and the DDSG, a skipper and ship inspector. After completing the appropriate technical schools, he worked in the DDSG from 1906. During World War I, he served on the steamship SZÖVETSÉG, for which the monarch awarded him the Order of the Crowned Gold. After the war, he continued to work in the DDSG. He was a popular editor and regular contributor of the shipping magazine Árbóc which was published from 1920 onwards.
In 1930, he was elected secretary of the Hungarian Shipping Association. In early 1941, his textbook Belhajózástan was published: it filled a gap and remained an indispensable work in ship training for several decades. He became a role model for many future ship captains.
Ship Captains
The least visible of the employees of the Óbuda Shipyard were the crew working on the ships as they were almost constantly on the move, except for the winter period. The ship crew was directly employed by the DDSG company, and they were responsible for the safe transportation of passengers and cargo.
At the top of the hierarchy was the ship captain who managed and coordinated the ship crew. Initially, the DDSG ship captains were all foreigners because river navigation was still in its infancy in our country at that time. It was captains of mainly English, Dutch and German origin who were entrusted with the management of the various ships that came out of the factory. From the end of the 19th century, advanced ship training began in Hungary, which made it possible to train Hungarian professionals. The Royal Hungarian Ministry of Commerce’s shipping officer course was launched in 1885, where young people who had graduated could begin their studies. The practical training involved 3 to 4 years of ship service while the theoretical training took place during the winter. The students were taught various specialist subjects by active ship captains (e.g. navigation, shipbuilding, DDSG regulations, geography, hydrographic knowledge, and shipping law).
Practical training also included visits to shipyards. By 1925, about 500 people had successfully passed the exam and obtained a ship captain’s qualification. During the Communist period, those working on ships could study at a shipping technical school while ship captains were trained at the College of Transport and Telecommunications and, at college level, at the Faculty of Transport of the Budapest University of Technology.
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