„They murmured the Mariner’s Prayer”

SMS SZENT ISTVÁN battleship was the pride of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Hungarian shipbuilding. The construction started in 1912, under the supervision of first-class Hungarian engineers, and was completed in 1914 in the Fiume-based Ganz and Partner Danubius Machine & Wagon-Work and Shipyard. After the ship had been launched, it was equipped with the strongest possible artillery of the era, then in November 1915 it was placed into active service. The 151 m long, 27 m wide, 8 m draft vessel stationed in the Austro-Hungarian Naval Shipyard in Pula until June, 1918. Then the warship having a water displacement of almost twenty thousand tonnes, in the company of her sister battleship, the SMS TEGETTHOFF and the destroyers escorting the two warships, together with the torpedo-boats sailed out from Pula, to protect the units participating in the attack against the Otranto sea-blockade. But, at dawn, – due to a series of coincidences – the vessel was hit by an Italian torpedo attack. Following several hours of agony, despite the gigantic struggle of the crew, at 6:12 AM in the morning she sank for ever into the depth of the sea. That day eighty nine seamen from the crew of the greatest vessel of the fleet died a hero’s death.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the battleship, József Lőcsei, the President of the Istria Association of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia greeted the gathering. “It is our moral obligation to cherish the memory of our fallen soldiers, caring for our monuments, commemorative plaques, our heroes’ graveyards, because tribute to the heroes is a message about remembrance, reconciliation and the future" – he said.

In his speech held in the Pula Naval Graveyard, Colonel Dr. Vilmos Kovács evoked the past centuries of the Hungarian and the Croatian nations, and the hard life of their seamen. “During the centenary of the catastrophe of SMS SZENT ISTVÁN, we also have to commemorate those Hungarian naval officers, who died heroically on the Danube, the Sava, on the Adria or on the Mediterranean Sea in the course of the Great War" – pointed out the Commander of the MoD MHIM. He added: “with our ceremony we honour our former comrades, who murmured the Mariner’s prayer before they sailed off."

MP Dr. Zoltán Lomnici in his address said: this monument is very important from the aspect of the Hungarians living in Istria. Here, every year they can remember the heroes, and the fact that they belong to our one unified Hungarian nation. Following his speech József Magyar, the Ambassador of Hungary to Croatia closed the series of speakers: “There are moments, at the time of anniversaries, when some people celebrate, some remember. We, Hungarians think that the nation and the remembrance belong together" – he noted.

At the Hungarian and Croatian language commemorative plaque first Col. Dr. Vilmos Kovács placed the flowers of remembrance, then the representatives of the Croatian Defence Ministry lay their wreaths. At the Monument Ambassador József Magyar and Lt.-Col. László Szendrői, the Military Attaché of Hungary in Zagreb bowed their heads. Members of Parliament, Dr. Zoltán Lomnici and Kálmán Tóth, as well as Major Szilárd Bagi, the Dept. Commander of the HDF 1st “Honvéd" Explosive, Ordnance Disposal and Warship Regiment paid tribute to the Hungarian martyrs, who died during the sea battles of the Great War. At the monument of the Hungarian seamen finally MP Róbert Jankovics and József Lőcsei placed their wreaths.

The participants – among them the members of the Hungarian community in Croatia – commemorated their dead heroes at the bilingual plaque placed in the former Austrian- Hungarian (K.u.K. naval) cemetery in 2004.

On 23 June the MoD MHIM opens its exhibition “His Majesty’s battleship, the SMS Szent István – a 100 year old war grave in the depth of the sea". The exhibition commemorates the many thousands of seamen, NCOs and officers serving in this branch of service. Among others – a piece of the uniform of Commodore Károly Masjon will also be displayed, who as the chief of the Ist class battleship left the board of the sinking ship amongst the last ones.

Photo of Veronika Dévényi