© Bundeswehr / Marcel Kröncke
ABOARD THE GORCH FOCK: Interview with Captain Bornkessel
“Wind force 10, it got right down to business.”
Captain Bornkessel, commander of the Gorch Fock, has just arrived in Las Palmas with his crew. Behind them lies a tough ride through the Atlantic with winds of force 10 and more. We talk about teamwork on the bream, why the Gorch Fock trains people for life, the manoeuvring of a frigate in 1797 – and what all this has to do with a poster that hung in his childhood bedroom in 1981.
Captain Elmar Bornkessel
Commander Gorch Fock
The Gorch Fock , commissioned in 1958, is the German Navy's sail training ship with its home port in Kiel. She will be moored at Sartorikai at the start of the Ocean Race Europe and can be visited during the Open Ship.
Kiel-Marketing: Captain Bornkessel, you are the commander of the Gorch Fock currently travelling on the 182nd AAR. Where are you at the moment?
FKpt. Elmar Bornkessel: We are currently in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. The original plan was to sail to Madeira, but we were informed at short notice that the harbour on the south-eastern tip that we had actually been advised of was not accessible to us due to construction work.
This all had to happen at very short notice, and with a sailing ship that is dependent on wind directions, especially as a ship of the German Navy, which is always travelling on official diplomatic business.
Whether Madeira or the Canary Islands, you could of course say like Andi Möller "Milan or Madrid, the main thing is Italy", then we'll just go somewhere else. That's not the case with a sailing ship, of course, which has significant consequences for us. I have to see whether I can get there on time and whether I can get from there to the next harbour on the route on schedule. In addition, some people wanted to bring their families to Madeira, everything was already booked, flights, hotels.
Of course, there's a lot involved diplomatically, and I have to say that the Spanish authorities, the German embassy in Madrid and the consul here in Gran Canaria played along very well and made things possible without needing months of advance notice.
Was it always a foregone conclusion that you would join the navy? You come from Friedigerode, which is south of Kassel.
I had a basic affinity with the Bundeswehr from an early age and the navy in particular naturally held a certain fascination for someone like me as a young boy from northern Hesse. I went to the North Sea once or twice as a small child. That was the first time I came into contact with the sea and it fascinated me. In retrospect, I hardly like to say that I could have become an army officer.
Somehow it was a twist of fate at the time, and the Gorch Fock really tipped the scales. When I was little, I had a poster of the Gorch Fock hanging in my room in all her grace, beauty and elegance.
© Bundeswehr / Marcel Kröncke
It's good that you did that. When you think of the navy, you tend to think of the grey ships, and here we have the "white swan of the Baltic". Isn't that anachronistic?
I think they complement each other. I'm not just a Gorch-Fock sailor, I also served on grey ships throughout my career in the navy. So I don't see it as a contradiction, but as a useful addition. I am firmly convinced that what we teach on this ship at a very early stage of officer training cannot be taught anywhere else.
Through the training on the Gorch Fock and against the background of the changes we see in young people from generation to generation, the Gorch Fock is more important today than ever. Here on board we can work on people in a focussed way. Anyone who approaches this training with an open mind will benefit from it for the rest of their lives, including in the further course of their training and career in the Bundeswehr. It's quite something when you're standing at the bream in eight metre waves, the sea comes over you, it's cold, it's raining and maybe you'd rather be doing something else. But you know it's practically unavoidable now, relentless. You have to do your job here, otherwise it won't work. I firmly believe that knowing that will help you later in your career.
“The entire range of social skills is covered on board here.”
FKpt. Elmar Bornkessel
You can't work on bream alone. It has a lot to do with teamwork.
The entire range of social skills is demonstrated here on board. Working on the bream, i.e. changing the position of the square sails, is actually one of the most strenuous tasks on board. You can't move anything on your own, it's important to work as a coordinated team and then you realise that you can master a tall ship like the Gorch Fock with just a few people. That's a realisation that I think you can take with you into the rest of your life.
Björn Both recently said: “All this seamanship can serve very, very well as a kind of railing that you can also use to hang on to on land.” Can you relate to that?
Yes, I can understand that very well. I would almost like to adopt this statement as my own, I think it's really good. In fact, you could ask yourself: is it all about learning practical skills on board the Gorch Fock ? But that's not the decisive factor, it's basically the framework, the railing that you then take with you into the rest of your life.
Do you sometimes still go into the yards? Boris Herrmann says he is a little afraid of heights. Nevertheless, when it came down to it, he climbed around 30 metres up the mast.
Yes, I'm also up there from time to time, simply to keep myself in shape, but also to signal to the cadets that it's not rocket science. Fear of heights is something you have to take a closer look at. I believe that fear of heights is often not an accurate self-diagnosis. When Boris Herrmann says he's afraid of heights, I don't quite believe him. I think he has more respect for heights. And that's what we teach every cadet here. He did it anyway, when we see the pictures that have gone round the world of him carrying out his repair work up in the rigging. So, I don't want to deny him that, but I don't think it's a form of fear of heights in the medical sense.
Björn Both
Sailor, frontman SANTIANO and ambassador for the UN Ocean Decade
“As commander, you can’t take a reckless approach, I have to look at the sail management, what risks am I prepared to take? What sails am I prepared to set, taking into account the level of training of the crew?”
FKpt. Elmar Bornkessel
When you are on the ship, whether on the Gorch Fock or on any other ship, you can have a general respect for the sea – for the wind, the waves, the vastness, the endless grey to the horizon. Do you notice this in yourself or in the crew?
We had a long period of bad weather on the last leg of the voyage in particular; a few days after setting sail we had force 10 winds, which produces quite a bit of swell, and we set sail with a newly trained crew. Although we had very intensive training in the harbour, a warm-up phase at sea would nevertheless have been good. But that's when things really got down to business. As commander, you can't take a reckless approach, I have to look at the sail management, what risks am I prepared to take? What sails am I prepared to set, taking into account the level of training of the crew? We have grown closer together as a crew, we now have a higher level of training. Of course, I am forced to look at what is really possible, otherwise it makes no sense, otherwise I could just set sail and drift along. That's not what we do. Even though we are a sailing ship, we are a warship. We have a mission to carry out, and that requires me to be in the next harbour on time.
The commander on board in Las Palmas, the interviewer in the stone ship in Kiel
© Bundeswehr / Marcel Kröncke
That brings a team even closer together. Can you feel that on board?
Yes, definitely. Of course, I draw a conclusion after every training cruise. Even though this is my first cruise as commander, I've already been on many training cruises, and if I were to draw a comparison, I would almost say that this is the best training cruise I've been on so far, and that's mainly down to the conditions. If you had asked the cadets, I think their enjoyment would have been very limited. We had a quarter of young cadets who were seasick, some of them so severely that they could no longer be called upon to work. But that's exactly the effect we want to achieve: You are faced with challenges, you get through them somehow, and then you can look back on them with pride and lift yourself to a new level.
Speaking of seas: on board the Gorch Fock do people still sleep in hammocks?
Yes, the cadets have the advantage that they are not so affected by the swell, at least when they are sleeping. But it was difficult for me in my fixed bunk, where I also thought it might get a bit less. But we had wind force 10 throughout, gusting to 11 in the early stages.
During the Ocean Race, sailor Rosalin Kuiper was once knocked out of her bunk in heavy seas and suffered a laceration. The crew had to tend to her and compensate for her position for a while. With this esprit de corps, or to put it more sportingly, with this team spirit in extreme situations, the crew has to work together all the more and be there for each other. Of course, a coach can beat his team to a goal, but in the long term he is more of a motivator and a rock in the surf. How do you see your role as a commander?
I think the comparison with the coach is quite apt. As a big football fan, of course, I see myself in the role of a coach. I have to make sure that I put the team together correctly, get them on board and motivate them to successfully master the tasks ahead. I describe my credo in three words: know, think and act. I do this very transparently and explain why things are the way they are. This transparency ensures that the team stands behind what we do. This team spirit, the ability to master things even in difficult situations, has really created an esprit de corps, not only among the officer candidates, but we have grown very, very close together as a whole crew.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges for the crew on board the Gorch Fock compared to other units at sea?
The living conditions on board have of course been continuously improved over the years. Although the Gorch F ock was built in 1958, its design is more than 20 years older, so the living conditions here are much more challenging than on any other German Navy unit. We have 20, 25, 30 men and women sleeping in hammocks on small decks. You have to get used to it during pre-sailing training, but the positive effect comes when we are at sea and you realise that you can sleep well in these hammocks and wish for nothing else. My welcome message to all cadets is always: if you get through the six weeks on the Gorch Fock well, I guarantee that you will never have any problems later on board frigates, corvettes or supply ships with the rhythm of the watch, with little sleep, with rough seas, with restricted living conditions. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere else.
What does a typical day on board look like, what is your watch rhythm?
We have a four-man watch, which may sound relaxed to those who have been to sea elsewhere, because such a watch is the most luxurious option in inverted commas. But when the cadets are not on watch at sea, they have lessons and practical training sessions during the day, which means they have very little sleep left over. Then, of course, there's personal hygiene, preparing for exams and revising for lessons. It's a strenuous job that we all do here, but nonetheless it brings a great deal of job satisfaction and, in my perception, so do most of the others on board, at least that's what I can say for the regular crew. They are all people of conviction, nobody is forced to sail on the Gorch Fock, they all do it voluntarily and are happy to accept all the hardships that sailing on the Gorch Fock entails.
The boats in the Ocean Race, but also Arved Fuchs, who travelled with his almost 100-year-old Dagmar Aaen Expeditions to the Arctic, have various mobile laboratories for seawater measurements on board, for example the OceanPack which takes 20,000 measurements a day and sends the data directly to institutes such as Geomar via satellite. Would it also be conceivable to take such laboratories on board the Gorch Fock or other measuring devices that are deployed in the sea?
In principle, something similar would also be possible on the Gorch F ock. What fits on an Imoca should also fit on ours. As commander, I would be in favour of such a project and the navy would certainly be too. The topic of sustainability also plays a major role on board. The Thünen Institute for Wood Research in Hamburg is currently running a research project in co-operation with us to find alternatives to natural forest teak for ship decks. As an alternative, the wood and utilisation properties of the wood species Afzelia, Iroko, Itaúba and modified Limba have been tested on a test area on the upper deck in a long-term monitoring project since 2001. We are pleased to be able to make an important contribution to research here, as the stresses and strains on a sail training ship are a real endurance test for a wooden deck.
“When I look at the yard crews, I notice that the top two yards are currently only manned by women.”
FKpt. Elmar Bornkessel
Women have also been on board since 1989. Are special measures taken below deck to separate men and women? And is there a difference in attitude and willingness to perform between men and women on board?
In principle, I would say no. If I look at the details now, I can say that perhaps on average the women are actually slightly better. The best student on the course was a young woman who showed outstanding performance in all areas. Not just in terms of performance, but also in terms of her behaviour, her appearance, her character and her personality, which impressed us in all areas. When I look at the yard crews, I notice that the Grand Royal and Grand Bramrah are currently only crewed by women. That's 35, 40 metres high, so it helps to be a bit smaller, but the truth is that not everyone likes to work there.
We have six decks where the cadets and sailing crew are accommodated. In principle, it's almost mixed accommodation, where we just have a curtain separating the women from the men, so we're very progressive and completely unpretentious. When people leave their watch at night, I think they have other problems than completely isolating themselves in front of their locker and then taking off their overalls and putting on their pyjama bottoms.
I can imagine that this equal treatment will be welcomed by some women in the business world.
The decisive factor is the teamwork that works in the end, I don't see any differences at all and I'm particularly pleased that we're really leading the way here.
“I was a fan when I was young and then over the years I collected all the posters that were issued by the Bundeswehr. At some point I realised that they were getting worse every time. The sails that hang down or sometimes stand back.”
FKpt. Elmar Bornkessel
Are there any extreme situations at sea or particularly beautiful moments for you personally that you always like to remember?
I actually have a lot of memories, but the last part of the voyage with the challenges outlined above was particularly special. It makes you really proud that we work so well as a team, that the crew knows that we were always in control of the ship in every situation. I have responsibility for the ship, but logically also for the crew. The fact that at the end of the day it is a sailing ship is something you can never take lightly, you really have to keep a close eye on it at all times, every day, every hour, every minute.
A few days ago you had a very special experience, the Operation White Swan. You called it "a manoeuvre similar to the tactics of the great naval battles of the 18th century".
I outlined at the beginning what brought me to the navy, including a poster of the Gorch Fock that hung in my childhood bedroom in 1981. I was a fan at a young age and over the years I collected all the posters issued by the Bundeswehr. At some point I realised that they got worse every time. The sails that hang down or sometimes stand back. You can't blame anyone for that, the commander is not a photographer and the photographer is not a sailor, it's difficult to capture a decent photo of the Gorch Fock that meets sailing and photographic standards. But I believe that a good photo also has a great public image for the Bundeswehr. This is only one side of the coin. Because it is the sailing challenge to be able to achieve this at all. I have to have enough wind to keep the sails upright, but then of course there is also the limit where I can abandon my dinghy with the photographer if there is too much speed. I have to stop, then run off and then, in our case, jibe back onto the opposite course. With the right wind speed, we quickly travelled eight miles ..
... and had to find the dinghy again ..
... exactly, we also have to find the dinghy again, because in two to three metres of swell, radar contact is also lost. On top of that, of course, we want the leeward photo. All these factors are basically the same as what a captain of an English frigate did in 1797 when he took on a French blockade runner off Brest. He made exactly the same considerations: How do I have to approach, when do I have to make my manoeuvre, when do I have to head back towards contact, which position do I have to take, upwind or downwind? So it really was a sailing masterpiece by the crew on board, sailing training at the highest level, to capture this in a hopefully iconic photo. We made a limited edition of 187 photos, and each crew member received one of these photos with a certificate on the back.
Just as I was fascinated by this poster as a young boy, there are perhaps other boys and girls today who are similarly fascinated by a tall ship and who say: seafaring, the navy, that's what interests me. If we can make a small contribution to this, then that would make me very, very proud and then we will not only have achieved something special in terms of sailing, but perhaps we will also have created a positive effect for the Bundeswehr and, at the end of the day, for the Federal Republic of Germany.
© Bundeswehr / Padberg
In August you are with the Gorch Fock in Kiel for the Ocean Race Europe, will you have posters with this new motif on board for the people in Kiel?
I don't know how fast the navy is, but I've already thought about what it would be like to finance this privately ..
... well, then I can promise you that we at Kiel-Marketing will support you. The Gorch Fock is a landmark for the people of Kiel and far beyond. Do you have anything you would like to pass on to the people of Kiel in their home port?
We are definitely looking forward to coming back. Sailors always say that they want to go back to sea, but when they are at sea, they also want to return to their home harbour. That's why we're really looking forward to coming back this year after a long training voyage. And we are proud and happy that we will be able to show the ship to the people of Kiel in a different context, namely in the centre of the city on Sartorikai, and hopefully welcome many people from Kiel on board.
© Bundeswehr / Theska
Die Gorch Fock unter Vollzeug –
Atlantik, März 2025
„Die Operation White Swan“
© Kiel-Marketing GmbH
Acquire article rights