The German Navy sail training ship Gorch Fock is finally back in the water after a lengthy repair/rebuilding, plagued by scandal and extraordinary cost overruns. Delivered in 1958, she is a near-sister vessel of the original ship of the same name commissioned in 1933. The ship is often referred to unofficially as the Gorch Fock II to distinguish her from her older sister ship.

Depending on who you ask the training ship is either the “pride of the German Navy” or an ongoing embarrassment. The Berlin Spectator took the later view when it noted that “replacing the second ‘o’ in ‘Gorch Fock’ with a ‘u’ will show what many Germans think of the scandals surrounding the vessel.”

From 2008 through 2011, a series of controversies arose related to crew safety, a near mutiny, and allegations of sexual harassment, that resulted in the captain being suspended. (All charges were later dropped.)  

Then in 2015, the Gorch Fock entered Elsflether shipyard in Germany for basic repairs, with an estimated cost of 10 million Euros. Before the ship was back in the water over five years later, the cost had exploded to 135 million Euros. The shipyard has since gone bankrupt and is the subject of several sets of investigations alleging corruption and mismanagement.

The ship has undergone a major restoration. The hull has been almost entirely replated. A recent audit report describes how an economic feasibility study was never been conducted for the repair work. On top of it all, the ministry never tried to establish whether having a new ship built would have been cheaper, according to the Audit Office.

For the sake of comparison, a new, larger training ship, the BAP Unión, was delivered to the Peruvian Navy in 2016 for an estimated construction cost of 50-60 million Euros. 

Additional outfitting work is underway on Gorch Fock II.  Her first new training voyage is expected to commence in July of this year.