The German sail training ship Gorch Fock marked six decades of service in the navy on December 17, 2015. Marking the occasion, the German Navy released a video with archive footage of the Gorch Fock chronicling the ship’s years in service.
It all began in 1958 when the ship was launched at the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss. A year later, the tri-mast made the first overseas sail.
The ship is the second one carrying this name and the sixth of its class. The five sister-ships were all built at the same shipyard before WWII. The 81-meter ship, which served to prepare generations of sailors for their duties in the German Navy, is home-ported in Kiel, Germany.
The Gorch Fock cost 8.5 million DM (Deutsche Mark) in 1958 and is now estimated to be worth around €50 million.
Naval Today Staff