Gorch Fock back in Kiel on 9 September

On Friday, 9 September 2022, the sail training ship "Gorch Fock" arrived in its home port of Kiel. The crew was welcomed by Flotilla Admiral Jens Nemeyer, the commander of the Mürwik Naval Academy.

The day before, Kristina Herbst, the new CDU state parliament president in Schleswig-Holstein, had welcomed the Gorch Fock to the roadstead in the Kiel Fjord.

After a good five weeks and around 2,500 nautical miles, this marks the end of the 174th foreign training voyage (AAR) and thus the first voyage of the new commander, Captain Andreas-Peter Graf von Kielmannsegg (55).

"My main hope with this voyage was to achieve the training objective for the officer candidates and at the same time to advance the training of the regular crew. The necessary framework conditions were in place for both, in particular the required wind and weather conditions, so in my view this hope was fulfilled," said the commander.

He and his crew were particularly proud of the consistently positive response in the three harbours they visited. The Hanse Sail in Rostock, the Tall Ship Meeting in Szczecin and the visit to Finland's capital Helsinki, a future NATO partner country. "I was impressed by the great interest shown by the public. A total of around 15,000 visitors came on board to see the Gorch Fock as part of the Open Ships programme in the three ports," says Kielmannsegg. Around 100 naval officer cadets of the 2021 crew were trained in the
As part of their basic nautical training on the sail training ship, they were able to gain practical experience on board the tall ship before moving on to the academic part of their training at the Bundeswehr universities in Hamburg and Munich.

Having barely arrived in their home port, new tasks are already awaiting the ship and crew so that they can take part in the swearing-in ceremony for the 2022 naval officer candidates in Flensburg Mürwik on 23 September.

Photos: Frigate Captain Petersen, Kristina Herbst, new CDU state parliament president in Schleswig-Holstein, receives "Gorch Fock"