{"id":14200,"date":"2022-09-16T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/?p=14200"},"modified":"2025-11-18T09:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T08:25:22","slug":"gorch-fock-the-long-way-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marineforum.online\/en\/gorch-fock-der-lange-weg-zurueck\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorch Fock: the long way back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gorch Fock 38th training voyage 1971 Lisbon-Kiel<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Photographs of the training voyages of the \"Gorch Fock\" were also taken half a century ago - albeit in a decidedly \"analogue\" style. Colourful slides were the measure of all things, and Super 8 films were also shot. Black and white, however, was affordable and allowed all the graphic design possibilities of the \"thousand grey tones\".<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As I had already been involved with black and white photography almost professionally during my school days, I also stuck with this genre when I decided to enlist in the then German Navy for four years. Unfortunately, as a professional soldier, I gradually lost time for photography as my service became more and more serious. The sailing training voyage on board the \"Gorch Fock\" during my first year of service was probably the last opportunity to use up metres of film material in a completely uninhibited manner. Even if only \"unretouched\" and digitally scanned - here are some pictures from the 70s! Of course, it helped that I was able to enjoy a few freedoms during the training trip as a mizzen topside guest that others were not afforded. But first things first.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As very young officer candidates after basic training and the first few months of the officer training course at the M\u00fcrwik Naval Academy, the \"Zetties\" - the temporary soldiers of Crew X\/70 who had signed up for four or more years - boarded the \"Gorch Fock\" in the middle of the summer of 1971. The professional soldiers had already completed their cruise in Lisbon and had to fly home. We arrived in a sunny Portugal, which was still preoccupied with Angola at the time, but otherwise still untroubled, and spent three weeks of pre-sailing training on the pier - in the harbour, in the middle of the city. Training in blue overalls in the mornings, shore leave in white \"aft laundry\" in the afternoons - as long as you didn't have to stand watch. Intercultural initial experiences - great cinema!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Once the roughest part had been learnt, the feeling of balance and fear were in balance at the top, and the legs and arms were also set for strength, we headed down the Tagus towards the Azores. Past Madeira with a backstay breeze. A small diversions around the Canary Islands was accepted because the boat was running really well. Then no wind - character sailing - subdued humility, because you also have to learn to put up with not being able to do anything. But it wasn't that difficult!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My watch: starboard two, on the aft deck. Hammocks on two levels. Packing mats - woe betide me if they're not tied properly - bosun's knives are sharp. Stowing mats, washing with cold water and from tin bowls. Salt water showers are a luxury. Baking and cutting banks for dinner - three times a day - tidying everything up again - then lessons. Or sailing manoeuvres, no matter when, day or night - lifebelt always knotted around the stomach. A snap hook - that was all there was back then, the rest was done by calloused hands and sometimes wobbly legs. During manoeuvres, I had no business being on deck - my station as a topside guest was always in the mast. This was compulsory, but had huge advantages - you were allowed to watch the work on deck from above! You can learn a lot - you can even get used to some things. Just don't get cocky - the sailing ship teaches you that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ponta Delgada was our first port of call abroad, and everything on the ship had to be spick and span and polished. Blocking the wooden deck with pumice stones until our knees, backs and wrists ached. But then on S\u00e3o Miguel, up and down the volcanic slopes in minibuses, across banana groves in a hire car - and sweet schnapps gives you a headache - the kind of thing that sticks in your mind!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then back out into a storm depression - beforehand, a buoy manoeuvre, that has to be right. Hoist the sails, reef, down with the stuff! Run with half the wind as much as the rig can handle. Wind force eight, gusts up to ten - storm routine at a heel of 30 degrees. 2,000 tonnes of steel and sails at almost 14 knots. Best etmal 286 nautical miles! A small flotilla of fishing boats came to meet us, otherwise we were alone between the Azores and Ireland. This can be hard on the weak of heart, but in the next harbour we all felt immortal again! We almost sailed past the Emerald Isle, but the wind shifted after three days and took us into the Irish Sea.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You hardly noticed that it was almost all rain in Dublin. The days passed quickly and Molly Malone also stayed behind in her fair city. Past the Isle of Skye, around the land of whisky (also gives you a headache) and on the port side, looking at the eddies of the tidal current at Scapa Flow. History lesson - a brief pause. Three days of aft winds and through the Skagerrak into the Kattegat, then heading for Kiel. Last but not least, we caught a metre of thousand-legs for some nonsense. We did everything - nothing was left out. It lasted a lifetime!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Text: Axel Stephenson<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Captain (retired)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n