With her eye-catching name, grand 140-foot main mast and 23 sails, the German barque Gorch Fock stood tall as a tourism attraction off Front Street this week.

It was easy to imagine her in international regattas, majestically riding the waves.

Easy, too, to picture her being boarded by VIPs for official receptions.

To the German Navy, however, this three-masted vessel is more than an international public relations prize; it plays a key role in turning recruits into potential naval leaders.

It is a point the ship's officers are keen to hammer out: the crew, which includes 100 conscripts, has not been on a round-the-world sightseeing trip.

"In our Navy there is a long tradition of educating sailors, officers and cadets on vessels like this,'' Lt. Cdr. Thorsten Metschulat told The Royal Gazette shortly before Gorch Fock left Bermuda.

"It teaches the crew how to work as a team and that is our philosophy.

"Everything on board is done by manpower. Men depend on each other.'' He added: "We are living in small rooms, 30 people in a room with only hammocks to sleep on.

"You have to learn to live together and develop comradeship.'' As he spoke, cadets with closely-cropped hair lined up on deck while officers barked out orders; a small symbol of the twining of East and West Germany.

Sobering to think that a few years ago such a display of unity -- and comradeship -- would have been impossible.

Lt. Cdr. Metschulat explained the ratio of West Germans to their former eastern counterparts was roughly 50:50. Reunification had presented no problems to the military, he said.

"I think it was a great thing for our country after 50 years, although we now have many economic problems.'' Gorch Fock , captained by 54-year-old Thomas-Georg Hering, left Bermuda yesterday for the Azores -- one of her last ports of call before returning to Germany.

She has been on an 11-month voyage, taking in such countries as Italy, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mauritius, Barbados and South Africa.

For Lt. Cdr. Metschulat, east Asia and South Africa provided the most excitement.

"They were new cultures for us. South Africa was particularly interesting because of the change in the political system there.'' The voyage so far had been incident-free -- thanks to careful planning, he said.

"We haven't run into any storms. We have a meteorologist on board who gives us briefings each day.

"If there's a storm in our direction than we avoid it. It's been a very smooth journey.'' Since being launched on August 23, 1958, Gorch Fock has covered well over 500,000 nautical miles, completed more than 98 training cruises in foreign waters and visited hundreds of ports.

She was named after Johann Kinau, a German author well-known by his pen-name Gorch Fock . The son of a deep sea fisherman, he was killed in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Gorch Fock , whose home port is Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, could be returning to Bermuda in three years when a huge armada of tall ships visits the Island to mark the new millennium.

"I don't know whether we will be coming. It depends on the schedule,'' said Lt. Cdr. Metschulat.

AT THE HELM -- Gorch Fock's Captain Thomas-Georg Hering.

GORCH FOCK -- An important part of the German Navy's proud sail-training tradition.