German naval cadets received an unexpected lesson when a recent three-month training trip concluded with a crash into a concrete bulkhead.
The Gorch Fock is a three-masted barque that was launched in 1958 and is now used as a training ship by the German navy.
Training is the operative word here as a 90-day trip with 226 cadets aboard ended rather dramatically in November with a head-on crash into a concrete bulkhead.
For those who don’t speak German, the videographer provides narration, including, “Hold on, we’re going to crash!”, “Real bad move!” and “Not pretty.”
Thankfully, no one was injured and the ship had relatively minor damage.
The explanation, according to German media, is that the ship drifted off-course because of tidal currents.
Our thanks to Dieter Loibner, Soundings’ Austrian-born sailing editor, for the German translation.
