Ferenc Dombovári was born in Gyömrő in 1908 but his family comes from the village of Tiszolc in Gömör and Kishont county. After completing elementary school and apprenticeship, he started working as an electrician in 1927, when he received his first workbook from the Association of Lightning Installers, Mechanics and Visual Technicians. During World War II, he ran an electrical business but his shop was hit by a bomb during the siege. After the war, like countless Budapest residents, he participated in the rubble clearance efforts and then started working at Óbuda Shipyard on May 7, 1946.
At that time, he lived with his family in downtown Budapest, on Molnár Street. As an electrician, he not only worked on the factory premises but over the years he also accompanied the completed ships on two- or three-day test voyages on many occasions. In 1949, he participated in further professional training at the shipyard school. He was committed to his work as evidenced by the recognition he received during his time there. He received several monetary awards for his good work, and in 1954 he received the “Excellent Worker” badge, in 1956 a Stakhanovite certificate, and in 1957 an “Excellent Worker” certificate.
In his free time, he took photographs, visited the shipyard beach, and also took several vacations abroad, for example in Sochi, in the former Soviet Union. He worked at Óbuda Shipyard until his retirement in December 1968.
Specialties, Skilled Workers
From design to delivery, shipbuilding is a complex process that brings together many industries. From the beginning, Óbuda Shipyard was home to the metal, timber, spinning and construction industries, and later these were supplemented by new specialties. Beside the masters, assistants and apprentices also worked in every specialty and work process.
Many work phases requiring special work were for a long time carried out by hand – for example, the rivets of wooden ships were made by gypsy nailsmiths – and were only mechanized from the second half of the 19th century. The constant development of the factory was accompanied by the modernization of various work processes in which the designers also involved experienced skilled workers. The individual workshops operated in coordinated but independent units, which greatly contributed to the shipyard’s productivity.
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