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.jpg) Gorch Fock inStralsund, 2025 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Germany | |
| Name | Gorch Fock |
| Namesake | Gorch Fock |
| Builder | Blohm & Voss,Hamburg |
| Laid down | 2 December 1932 |
| Launched | 3 May 1933 |
| Commissioned | 26 June 1933 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 1 May 1945 |
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | Tovarishch |
| Acquired | by salvage, 1947 |
| In service | 1951 |
| Out of service | 1993 |
| Fate | Passed to Ukraine, 1993 |
 Ukraine | |
| Name | Tovarysh |
| Owner | Ministry of Education (Ukraine) |
| Acquired | 1993 |
| Fate | Sold to Germany in 2003 |
 Germany | |
| Name | Gorch Fock |
| Acquired | 2003 |
| Status | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | none |
| Type | Barque |
| Displacement | 1,510long tons (1,534 t) full load |
| Length | 82.1 m (269 ft) |
| Beam | 12 m (39 ft) |
| Height | 41.3 m (135 ft) at main mast |
| Draught | 5.2 m (17 ft) |
| Propulsion | 550 hp (410 kW) auxiliary engine |
| Sail plan | Barque, 1,753 m2 (18,870 sq ft) sail area |
Gorch Fock I (exTovarishch, exGorch Fock) is a German three-mastbarque, the first of a series built asschool ships for the GermanReichsmarine in 1933.
AfterWorld War II she was taken as war reparations by theSoviet Union and renamedTovarishch.In the 1990s she spent a short period under theUkrainian flag and a prolonged stay in British ports due to lack of funds for necessary repairs.
After being acquired by sponsors, she sailed to her original home port ofStralsund where her original name ofGorch Fock was restored on 29 November 2003. She now serves as amuseum ship, and extensive repairs were carried out in 2008.
In 1958 the Federal German government built a replacement training ship which is still in service, also namedGorch Fock.
The German school shipNiobe, a three-masted barque, capsized on 26 July 1932 in theBaltic Sea nearFehmarn due to a sudden squall, killing 69. The loss prompted the German Navy to order a new training vessel built. Flags were lowered to half-mast fromFlensburg toKonstanz as a public outpouring of grief gripped the nation. The Prussian State Mint issued aNiobe memorial coin to help raise money for a replacement ship, and soon earned 200,000 Reichsmarks towards the effort.[1]
Arequest for proposal went out to all the major shipyards, includingDeutsche Werke,Howaldtswerke, andGermaniawerft for the "Project 1115 Replacement Niobe".Joh. C. Tecklenborg, who had built one of Germany's previous training ships,Grossherzog Friedrich August, had just gone out of business and was unable to compete. Dr Wilhelm Süchting's design forBlohm+Voss, who had also built the German training ship,Prinzess Eitel Friedrich, won the bid, and construction began at their yard inHamburg on 2 December 1932. She was completed in a record 100 days.[2]
On 3 May 1933 the ship was launched and namedGorch Fock in honor of German writerJohann Kinau, who wrote under the pseudonym "Gorch Fock". Kinau had died in the 1916Battle of Jutland aboard the cruiserSMS Wiesbaden. 10,000 spectators attendedGorch Fock's launching, including Johann Kinau's mother. The launching was presided by AdmiralErich Raeder, and christened by Marie Fröhlich of the "German Woman's Fleet Association", with theKarlsruhe on station as a guard of honor.[1]
Commissioned by the German Navy on 26 June 1933,Gorch Fock is a three-masted barque. She has square sails on the fore and main masts, and isgaff rigged on the mizzen. The steel hull has a sparred length of 82.1 m (269 ft), a width of 12 m (39 ft) and a draught of 5.2 m (17 ft). She has a displacement at full load of 1510 tons. Her main mast stands 41.30 m (135 ft) high above deck and she carries 23 sails totalling 1,753 m2 (18,869 sq ft). She is equipped with an auxiliary engine of 410 kW (550 hp).
The training ship was designed to be robust and safe against capsizing. More than 300 tons of steel ballast in the keel give her a righting moment large enough to bring her back in the upright position even when she heels over to nearly a 90°.
Gorch Fock served as a training vessel for the German Reichsmarine prior to World War II.[3] During the war, she was a stationary office ship in Stralsund, until she was officially reactivated on 19 April 1944. On 1 May 1945, the crew scuttled her in shallow waters offRügen in an attempt to avoid her capture by the Soviets, who already had fired at her for 45 minutes with tanks.
The Soviets ordered Stralsund-based company "B. Staude Schiffsbergung" to raise and salvage her, which after some difficulties was done in 1947 at a cost of 800,000 Reichsmark (equivalent to 3 million 2021 euros). She was under restoration between 1948 and 1950. She was then namedTovarishch (Russian for "Comrade"[4]) in 1951 and put into service as a training vessel. Her new home port wasOdessa. She participated in manyTall Ships' Races and cruised far and wide on the seven seas. She made a voyage around the world in 1957 and won theOperation Sail race twice, in 1974 and 1976.
After thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,Tovarishch sailed under theUkrainian flag (home portKherson) until 1993, when she needed repairs and was deactivated for lack of funds. In 1994, she sailed from Kherson toNewcastle-upon-Tyne, where private sponsors wanted to have her repaired. This stalled because of the high costs, and, declared unseaworthy, she was left moored at Middlesbrough'sMiddlehaven for five years. During this time, she was continually crewed by cadets from theKherson State Maritime Academy (the crews were changed twice yearly), and provided with electricity and provisions.[5] In August 1999, with funding secured for her restoration, the ship was transported toWilhelmshaven, where she stayed in dock for four years until finally transferred to Stralsund in 2003. On 29 November 2003 the ship was re-christenedGorch Fock.
By 2011 the ship was in poor but stable condition, needing about six million dollars' worth of work to bring it back to sailing condition. The museum had a dismal tourist season, resulting in a fifty thousand dollar loss in revenue from previous years, and forcing a layoff of five workers. Restorations were finally completed at a shipyard in Stralsund in 2024.[6]
The design ofGorch Fock proved highly successful. She was the first of a series of five sister ships built byBlohm & Voss, and a number ofSouth American school ships are also based on the same design. Of the three originalsister ships, onlyMircea is an exact replica ofGorch Fock.Horst Wessel andAlbert Leo Schlageter are 7 metres (23 ft) longer, and all three have slightly more powerful auxiliary engines.
Horst Wessel was launched in 1936—the growing Reichsmarine needed more school ships. Her home port wasKiel. At the end of World War II, she became one of several war reparations and was assigned to theUnited States. After some repairs inWilhelmshaven andBremerhaven, she was sailed by her German crew including the Captain together with American sailors to her new home port ofNew London, Connecticut. Since then, she has sailed under the nameEagle for theUnited States Coast Guard.
Albert Leo Schlageter was launched on 30 October 1937. She was confiscated by theUnited States after World War II and then sold toBrazil, where she sailed as a school ship under the nameGuanabara. In 1961, thePortuguese Navy bought her to replace the previous school shipSagres (which was later transferred toHamburg, where she is a museum ship under her original nameRickmer Rickmers). The Portuguese named herSagres also. She still sails as of 2015, having completed a circumnavigation on 24 December 2010.
Mircea was built by Blohm & Voss for theRomanian Navy. She was launched in 1938 and has always sailed under theRomanian flag (except for a short period after World War II, when she was confiscated by theSoviet Union). She is the only one of the sister ships that is truly identical toGorch Fock. She was overhauled at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg in 1966, and she still sails today[update].
Named after theHitler Youth martyrHerbert Norkus, another ship of theGorch Fock design—with the same dimensions asHorst Wessel—was begun at the Blohm & Voss shipyard. However, the unfinished ship had to be launched prematurely on 7 November 1939 because the slipway had to be cleared to buildsubmarines. The hull stayed in the harbor ofHamburg throughout World War II. It was damaged in a bomb raid in 1945, and instead of being sold to Brazil as had been considered, ended up being filled with gas grenades and sunk in theSkagerrak in 1947.
The yards, which had been prepared, but not yet mounted, and the tackle, which had not yet been rigged, were later used forGorch Fock built in 1958.
As Germany had lost all of its training vessels aswar reparations after World War II, the West GermanBundesmarine decided in 1957 to have a new training ship built following the plans forGorch Fock. The new ship was a modernized rebuild ofHorst Wessel. Coincidentally, her design had been influenced by another shipwreck: whereas the 1933Gorch Fock was built in response to theNiobe disaster, the plans ofSSS Gorch Fock were altered somewhat after the sinking ofPamir in 1957.
The modern-dayGorch Fock was launched on 23 August 1958 and commissioned on 17 December of that year.
A number of similar ships have been built by the Astilleros Celaya S.A. shipyard inBilbao forLatin American Navies, possibly following the Blohm & Voss design[citation needed]. The hulls and rigging of these ships are very similar, the main differences are in the superstructure and they also have larger tanks for bothdiesel and water, and they are also longer[citation needed]. These ships areGloria (1967,Colombia),Guayas (1976,Ecuador),Simón Bolívar (1979,Venezuela), andCuauhtémoc (1982,Mexico).
54°19′00″N13°05′54″E / 54.31667°N 13.09833°E /54.31667; 13.09833
