Even at the end of the last century, when the railway network was established, water transport was still of huge importance in our economy. And before the construction of the railways, water transport played at least as important a role as land transport in transporting goods over long distances.
Grain was transported on wheat ships. Wine, tobacco, and wood were transported by ship between different parts of the country and counties, while salt was transported on the Tisza and Maros rivers.
Wooden vessels were towed against the flow of water by man or animal power, whether the vessel was loaded or empty. A considerable towing layer developed near the major shipping centres. There were some people who were involved in towing only intermittently and occasionally, but there were generally a greater number of regular, professional towage operators.
We can speak of Tisza tugboats from the 1880s-90s until around 1940, when traditional methods of tugboat towing completely disappeared. In this period, especially from the 1910s, waterborne trade was carried out by steamships and later by motorboats, but in some places in the country, including the Szeged area, traditional towing also survived for a relatively long time.
It is a centuries-old tradition that ships from Szeged and the surrounding area were towed by Serbian merchantmen from Deszk.
Until before the First World War, towboats were hired in Szeged, in front of the former Europe Hotel (now the headquarters of EDF Demas) on Klauzál Square. From the beginning of the century, the reception of tugs took place more often on the banks of the Tisza.
The tow truck that negotiated with the farmers for the transport was called a scraper. The scraper was a kind of trusted man, like the “gang manager” of the cubic people. He also represented his associates in bargaining with the farmer, so a skilful, experienced man was always entrusted with this task.
In recent times, it was customary for the shipowner and the tugs to enter into a contract – the tugs would say, “we have a cartel with the farmers.” In the contract, it was agreed that the Serbs would tow the shipowner’s boats throughout the year, and the owner would always pay the agreed amount for the transport.
After the agreement with the farmer, the scraper would notify his fellow towmen, the crony, when the grain boats were due. Even empty, the larger grain boats were pulled by 10 to 14 horses. Each tug usually had 3 or 4 horses, sometimes 6 or 8 for the better-off, so several hauliers had to be partnered to pull the horses. Towmen working together were called mates. Two or three people, usually with 3-5 horses, towed together for years or decades. The loaded boats were towed with up to 24-30 horses.
The tugs caught the grain boats between the two bridges in Szeged. Between the road bridge and the old railway bridge, on the bánát (Újszeged) side, there was the so-called “dángubaplacc”. This was where wooden ships and barges waiting to be loaded and unloaded would moor and from here they would set off on their journeys after loading. The tugboats – sailors preferred to call them coachmen – would dismantle their wagons as soon as they arrived, and the sailors would place the parts in the hombar. For boats without a roof, the wagon did not have to be dismantled, but was pushed onto the “water spout”.
After the sailors had taken the tow rope and the pole to shore in a boat, the coachmen “caught the boat”. A horse was tied to the front end of the pole, this was the “prednyak” or leader. Then a horse was tied to each paddock, so that the horses pulled side by side in pairs, just on opposite sides of the pole chain. At the end, again, a horse, named “kurtulas” would pass, but this one always pulled on the side towards the shore. A skilled horse, trained as a “prednyak”, was taken in, skilled in towing and without a whip, and with only words of direction, led the “cukk” along the towpath. The horses, coachmen and towing horses were called “Cukk”, but the term was also used to refer to the whole cargo, i.e. the ship, the sailors and the towmen.
The “cukk” went on the towpath known as the “ficsor path, “cukk path” or horsepath. For this purpose, a 10-12 m wide strip was cleared on the towable bank of the river, trees and bushes were cut down and the road was forbidden to be planted or covered with anything.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the neglected, overgrown towpath made towing very difficult.
While the horses were being towed, the coachmen usually walked alongside the horses and used long “hemp whip” to encourage the “cukk” to move faster.
To steer the draft horses, the Deszk Serbs had traditional steering words. When they wanted to lead the horses towards the water, they shouted: “To the Danube you!” – and if they had to move away from the river towards the shore, they would shout “Get out!”.
Source: http://szegedpanorama.blogspot.hu, The boatmen of Deszk – Horsepower on the shore, The boatmen of Deszk – Man and horse, Literature: Antal Juhász: The boatmen of Deszk, Yearbook of the Móra Ferenc Museum, 1964-65, pp. 93-114. m History and ethnography of Deszk, pp. 785-816.