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 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.
