Thank you Karoly for this nice card. It’s indeed a ‘Who’s Who’ of famous Tall Ships.
The Gorch Fock I (ex Tovarishch, ex Gorch Fock) is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch. After a short period under the Ukrainian flag in the 1990s and a prolonged stay in British ports due to lack of funds for necessary repairs, the ship was acquired by sponsors and sailed to her original home port of Stralsund, where her original name of Gorch Fock was restored on November 29, 2003. She is a museum ship, and extensive repairs were carried out in 2008. The Federal German government built a replacement training ship, the Gorch Fock (1958), which is still in service.
Many regard Mir as the fastest Class A sail training ship in the world. Since 1996, she won the Tall Ship Races five times! Since 1990, up to 60 trainees of all ages are welcome on board to sail along with the Russian students of the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mir's full complement of sails is 26; she is sailed with a crew of 200 but can be sailed with only 30. The ship's crewmembers and cadets have acquired a lot of friends in many European and some American ports, which makes every arrival a joyful experience!
Alexander von Humboldt is a German ship originally built in 1906 by the German shipyard AG Weser at Bremen as Reserve Sonderburg. She was operated throughout the North and Baltic Seas until being retired in 1986. Subsequently she was converted into a three masted barque by the German shipyard Motorwerke Bremerhaven and was re-launched in 1988 as Alexander von Humboldt.
The STS Sedov, formerly the Magdalene Vinnen II (1921–1936) and the Kommodore Johnsen (–1948), is a 4-masted steel barque that for almost 80 years was the largest traditional sailing ship in operation. Originally built as a German cargo ship, the Sedov is today a sail training vessel, training cadets from the universities of Murmansk, Saint Petersburg and Arkhangelsk. She participates regularly in the big maritime international events as a privileged host and has also been a regular participant in the Tall Ships' Races.
