On Thursday, command of the “Gorch Fock”, the training sailing ship of the German Armed Forces at the Kiel-Wik naval base. The commander of the Mürwik Naval School, Flotilla Admiral Jens Nemeyer (60), will hand over responsibility from Captain Andreas-Peter Graf von Kielmansegg (57) to his successor, Frigate Captain Elmar Bornkessel (48).
After a good two years in command of the German sail training ship, Captain Graf von Kielmansegg is leaving the ship: “After my predecessor successfully brought the ship out of the shipyard and back into service, it was an exciting task to continue on this path. After the long time in the shipyard, there was a lot to rebuild; the skills of the core crew, internal procedures, operating processes, routines, etc., all of which had to be rebuilt. Being able to shape this together with a great crew was a great pleasure, and that’s what my time as commander was essentially about.” Kielmansegg continues: “The confidence of the regular crew, the training of the officer candidates, all of this could now develop again and has done so. If I was able to make a contribution to this, then I would be delighted. I look back on my time in command of the ‘Gorch Fock’ with this pleasure and with gratitude to the crew, on whom I was always able to rely,” he concludes. He will take up his next post at the naval command in Rostock.
For the new commander, the North Hesse-born frigate captain Bornkessel, it is exactly the opposite. Coming from the naval operations school, he is now swapping his desk for seafaring. Nevertheless, the planks of the sail training ship are familiar to him. He served as a deck, sailing and division officer on board the “Gorch Fock” from 2001 to 2004. From 2014 to 2016, he was first officer and deputy commander. From 2018 to 2021, he was also commander of the Delta crew on the two Class 125 frigates “Sachsen-Anhalt” and then “Nordrhein-Westfalen”. Frigate Captain Bornkessel is looking forward to his new role: “First and foremost, I am delighted to be taking command of the ‘Gorch Fock’. On the one hand, it is a great honor, combined with anticipation, but I certainly also have respect for the task entrusted to me,” says the designated commander of the sail training ship. https://militaeraktuell.at/bundesheer-black-hawk-landete-am-akh/
Background information on the “Gorch Fock”
Since its commissioning in December 1958, around 16,000 officer and non-commissioned officer candidates have been trained on the planks of the “Gorch Fock”. In the course of her training voyages, she has visited around 400 ports in almost 60 countries on five continents, covering more than 770,000 nautical miles, the equivalent of 35 circumnavigations of the globe.
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