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| Gorch Fock 2 |
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 that earlier Gorch Fock. Both ships are named in honor of
the German writer Johann Kinau. He wrote under the pseudonym "Gorch
Fock" and died in the battle of the Skagerrak in 1916. The
modern-day Gorch Fock was built in 1958 and has since then
undertaken 146 cruises (as of October 2006), 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.
Because Germany had lost all its school
ships as war reparations after World War II, the German Bundesmarine
decided in 1957 to have a new training vessel built following the
plans for the old Gorch Fock of 1933. The new ship was a
modernized rebuild of the Albert Leo Schlageter, a sistership
of the previous Gorch Fock.
The 1933 Gorch Fock had already been designed to be a very
safe ship: she had a righting moment large enough to bring her back
into the upright position even when heeling over to nearly 90°.
Nevertheless some late-minute changes to the design were made in
response to the
Pamir disaster in 1957, especially concerning the strength
of the body and the bulkheads as well as the lifesaving equipment,
including the lifeboats.
The new ship 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. 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 mē 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.
Over the years, various modernizations have been applied to the
ship. She was fitted with air conditioning, the asbestos used
originally was removed and replaced by less dangerous materials in
1991, and in that year she also received a new auxiliary engine, a
six cylinder diesel engine producing 1,220 kW (1660 hp), good for a
top speed of 13.7 knots. The interior has also been modified
multiple times; technological advances made it possible to reduce
the size of the galley and enlarge the crew quarters. |
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