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The sail training ship Gorch Fock II

Saturday, 1 September 2012 - 01:30 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa
Category/Kategorie: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Gorch Fock is a tall ship of the German Navy (Deutsche Marine). She is the second ship of that name and a sister ship of the Gorch Fock built in 1933. Both ships are named in honor of the German writer Johann Kinau who wrote under the pseudonym “Gorch Fock” and died in the battle of Jutland/Skagerrak in 1916. The modern-day Gorch Fock was built in 1958 and has since then undertaken 180 cruises (as of 2011), including one tour around the world in 1988. She is sometimes referred to (unofficially) as the Gorch Fock II to distinguish her from her older sister ship.

The Gorch Fock was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, launched on 23 August 1958, and commissioned on 17 December of that year. Her home port is Kiel and is operated by the Naval Academy at Mürwik in Flensburg. The Gorch Fock is a three-masted barque with a steel hull 81.2 m (266 ft) long (without the bowsprit) and 12 m (40 ft) wide. She has a draught of some 5.2 m (17 ft) and a displacement at full load of 1760 tons. Originally, she carried 1952 m² of canvas sails; later, she received slightly larger sails made of synthetic materials. The tops of her fore and main masts can be lowered so that she can navigate the Kiel Canal, otherwise she would be too tall for some of the bridges spanning the canal.

The Gorch Fock was depicted on the 10 DM banknote of the third series (1960–1990) issued by the Bundesbank and is therefore one of the most portrayed ships in the world.

The Gorch Fock participates in sailing parades and Tall Ships’ Races, where she is in amicable rivalry with the Italian vessel Amerigo Vespucci. Other ships of the same class include the USCGC Eagle, Sagres III, Gorch Fock (1933) and Mircea.

The Gorch Fock has been in German Navy service as a training ship since 1958. More than 14,500 cadets have been trained on the Gorch Fock. In 1987-88, she sailed around the world, with stops on five continents. Lasting 336 days, this was her second longest cruise, topped only by a training cruise in 1996-97 from Kiel to Bangkok and back that lasted 343 days.

Read more on marine.de – Training ship Gorch Fock, Gorch Fock I and Wikipedia Gorch Fock II. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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