ABOARD THE GORCH FOCK
Where naval officers are made
The "Gorch Fock", the navy's sail training ship, is closely associated with its home port of Kiel and the people here. The ship is regularly seen off by the people and welcomed back on its return. The Gorch Fock can be visited at the Open Ship during the Ocean Race Europe in Kiel.
Only on a sailing ship can the cadets experience so closely the elemental forces at sea.
The navy's sail training ship is used to train officer cadets in the naval forces. On board, the cadets experience two things during their basic maritime training on board.
© Bundeswehr/Ricarda Schönbrodt
Teamwork on board
Firstly, the cadets learn what teamwork means in practice. The ship can only be controlled by working together as a group, as much of the work on board relies solely on muscle power. Four helmsmen are needed to keep the Gorch Fock on course, for example, and dozens of cadets have to work on the so-called breasts to move the heavy yards.
Elementary forces at sea
Secondly, the officer trainees learn about the elements that will be the natural environment for their future careers and in which they will have to take responsibility for ships and crews. Wind, waves and tides affect modern ships just as much as they do sailors. But only on a sailing ship do the cadets experience first-hand the elemental forces at sea.
“Boben dat Leben steiht de Dod, but boben den Dod steiht wedder dat Leben.”
© Bundeswehr/IMZ-Bildarchiv
The Gorch Fock in the Kiel Fjord in 1959
300 tonnes of ballast, tens of thousands of guests, hundreds of thousands of nautical miles
Tens of thousands of guests watched the launching of the Gorch Fock in the port of Hamburg on 23 August 1958. "Boben dat Leben steiht de Dod, aber boben den Dod steiht wedder dat Leben." (Above life stands death, but above death stands life again) - with these words in Low German, 14-year-old Ulli Kinau christened the first sail training ship of the German Navy with the name of her uncle Gorch Fock, the famous seafaring poet.
The Gorch Fock was commissioned on 17 December 1958 and set sail on her first training voyage on 3 August 1959. Since then, the barque has travelled hundreds of thousands of nautical miles and sailed all the world's oceans. Around 300 tonnes of iron ballast in the hull give the ship a particularly high degree of stability at sea, theoretically up to 90 degrees of heel. This design was also a consequence of the sinking of the Pamir, the merchant navy's sail training ship, which sank in a hurricane in the Atlantic in 1957.
Have a safe journey at all times and always a hand's breadth of water under the keel!
© Bundeswehr/Marcel Kröncke
Dimensions
- 89.3 m length (overall)
- 12.0 m width
- 45.0 m height (above waterline)
- 5.5 m draught
- 2,020 t displacement
Propulsion under sail
- 3 masts
- rigging: barque
- 10 square sails, 3 gaff sails, 10 topsails
- sail area: approx. 1,800 m²
- speed: up to 18 knots
Propulsion under engine
- 1 diesel engine
- 1,200 kW (1,700 hp) total power
- 1 propeller
- Speed: more than 10 kn
Crew & other
- Permanent crew: 80 to 161 (depending on the size of the course embarked)
- Additional crew: up to 141 course participants
- 2 RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) dinghies
© Bundeswehr / Kiel-Marketing GmbH
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