#GermanTallShip – The German Navy three-masted barque Gorch Fock, which is at anchor in Dublin Bay this morning, is on her first leg of training voyage that will be completed upon her arrival to the Irish capital tomorrow, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The visit of the sail-training vessel built in 1958 begins tomorrow, 4 September and will continue for over a fortnight. This will see the barque remaining in Dublin Port until the 21st of the same month. Last year as previously reported on Afloat she made a courtesy call to Cobh and equally on that occasion she paid a similar long visit.
On this current call "Open Ship" events will be held in Dublin Port (Sir John Rogersons Quay) from where the crew will welcome on board the public free of admission on board Sunday, 13th and the following Sunday 20th September, between 2pm-5pm. All are welcome and no prior registration is required.
This will be the 168th training voyage of the Gorch Foch which began last month and is scheduled to end in late November. The following ports of call are Funchal, Portugal, Cadiz, Spain and the final leg will be from Dartmouth to the German port of Wilhelmshaven.
For decades, Gorch Foch has served the German Navy providing training, representation and public relations. She has became famous, not only in Germany but also internationally, as the sail training ship is now better known than her namesake, German poet Johann Kinau alias Gorch Fock.
The primary mission of the Gorch Fock is to provide basic nautical training for officer and non-commissioned officer candidates of the German Navy combining theoretical and practical aspects. The focus is on the training of the officer candidates, the so-called cadets.
Technical Data
Overall length: 89.32 m
Hull length: 81.26 m
Beam: 12.00 m
Draught: 5.40 m
Displacement: 1,840 t
Sail area: 2,035 m²
Number of sails: 23
Sail plan: Barque
Maximum height of mast: 45.30 m
Maximum length of yards: 24 m
Brief History
The Gorch Foch is the first of her class, albeit forming the sixth ship, having been built from modified plans based on a series of five ships of a new generation then laid down during the 1930's at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg and commissioned into service.
The final fifth sister, Herbert Norkus launched in 1939, would eventually form in the construction almost two decades later of the Gorch Foch, as parts of the rigging, topmasts and yards were transferred and incorporated in the newbuild.
