Banco de dados da Segunda Guerra Mundial (WW2DB)

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

This article refers to the entire Gorch Fock-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

ww2dbaseThe Gorch Fock-class barque were steel-built three masted sailing ships launched by Blohm und Voss of Hamburg, Germany. They were meant to replace the training ship Niobe, which capsized and sank in the Baltic Sea in 1932. To prevent the Niobe tragedy from happening again, Gorch Fock-class ships were designed to be able to bring them back to a upright position even when they heeled over to nearly 90 degrees. They had square sails on the fore and main masts and gaff rigging on the mizzen mast, allowing them to reach the speed of 19 knots. With the auxiliary diesel engines, they could reach the speed of 10 knots. Five keels were laid down in the 1930s, although one, Herbert Norkus, was not finished. After the war, they were taken by the Allies as reparations.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, West Germany built the sixth Gorch Fock-class barque to replace the loss of these training ships. This post-war ship, also named Gorch Fock, was launched on 23 Aug 1958 and was commissioned on 17 Dec 1958.

ww2dbaseThe unfinished Herbert Norkus excepted, all remaining five ships are afloat at the time of this writing in 2021, most of which as active training ships and one as a museum ship.

Barque da Classe Gorch Fock Mapa Interativo

Barque da Classe Gorch Fock Operational Timeline