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| Mircea |
The Mircea is a three masted barque, built in 1938 in
Hamburg by the Blohm & Voss shipyard as a training vessel for the
Romanian Navy. Her design is based on the successful plans of the
Gorch Fock; the last of a series of four sister ships. The ship
is named after Mircea cel Bătrân. After World War II she was
temporarily taken over by the USSR, but then returned to Romania. In
1966, she was overhauled by Blohm & Voss.
Sister ships
Gorch Fock I
(1933, ex Tovarishch (1951 to 2003))
USCGC Eagle (1936, ex Horst Wessel)
Sagres II (1937, ex Albert Leo Schlageter)
Herbert Norkus (begun 1939, unfinished)
Gorch Fock II (1958) |
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| The 3-masted barque Mircea is sailed by officers, crew and
cadets from the Romanian Navy -- she is seen here leaving New
London, CT to race to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 2004 Tall Ships
Challenge series. |
The first 'Gorch Fock' was built in 1933, followed by sister
ships 'Horst Wessel' (today’s 'Eagle') in1936, 'Albert Leo
Schlageter' (today’s ‘Sagres’) in 1937, and the ‘Mircea’ in 1938. In
1939 a fourth sister ship was launched, intended to be called
‘Herbert Norkus’ (after a 15-year old Berlin Hitler youth killed by
‘reactionary’ adversaries). The ship was eventually completed up to
the lower masts. All the rigging was finished, too, but never got
installed. During WW II the future 'Herbert Norkus' served as an
accommodation ship in its yard. After the war she was towed to Kiel,
loaded with gas ammunitions, and sunk in the Baltic Sea.
1958 saw the completion of the fifth sister ship of the first 'Gorch
Fock', the post-war West German Navy’s 'Gorch Fock(2)'. Parts of
'Herbert Norkus's rigging were recycled in her construction.
On the souvenir sheet we see the 'Eagle' in the center, on the right
of the second 'Gorch Fock', and on the left of the small English 'Tawau'.
Keen observation of the depicted sailing positions shows that the
wind is blowing from different directions! |
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