The Sinking of M/V "Georg Büchner" - Rostock, Germany - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

The ship was built in 1950 in Belgium and originally, under the name Charlesville, served as a combined passenger and cargo ship (and occasionally as military troop transporter) between Belgium and (then) Belgian Congo.

In 1967, the ship was sold to the East German merchant fleet and became a training ship. In ten years, on 40 voyages from Germany to Cuba and Mexico and back, about 3,000 young aspiring sailors grew their sea legs on board this vessel - amongst them (in 1975) the author of this waymark.

In 1977, the then 27 year-old ship was decommissioned and became a floating hotel. When we visited her in 2010, her future as a hotel and technical landmark seemed secured.

However, recently, the city was struggling financially and maintaining the rapidly deteriorating vessel was no longer feasible.

On May 14, the city sold the ship for scrap metal value to an international investor group. On May 28, the old lady left her home port for the last time, bound for a scrapyard in Lithuania.

And this is, where the newspaper articles and blogs start:

M/V "Georg Büchner" in tow, leaving port for the last time, May 28, 2013

Considering the long history of the vessel, a scrapyard seemed a very inglorious end and indeed, the ship - yes, ships do have a soul - fought against its disreputable fate and decided to go out in style: Only a few hours into its last journey, she developed a heavy list, capsized and sank in 100 feet of water off the coast of Poland in international waters.

Over more than four decades, the ship had touched the lives of thousands of people in Germany's Baltic region. So it was not surprising that the news of the mysterious sinking (in calm sea and under perfect weather conditions) spread fast and was picked up by news media all across Germany. We choose the first article, published by Hamburger Abendblatt as the featured article.

Other news media like North German Broadcasting, Baltic News and Germany's biggest News Magazine Der Spiegel followed soon.

The first coverage in English language was published the same day by blog Germany North.

All articles follow pretty much the same pattern: Elaborating on the long and glorious history of the vessel, describing the financial calamity that led to her last voyage and then speculating on the reasons - ranging from rusty rivets to insurance fraud.

If you want to make the journey (don't forget your diving gear), the ship hit the ground of the Baltic Sea northeast of Cape Rozewie at

54°55.9'N 018°31.3'E

The sinking of the "Georg Büchner" did not only close the final chapter of East Germany's once mighty merchant fleet and its extraordinary training program but also marks the end of Europe's maritime colonial history. The vessel was the very last of the so called "Congoships" - a special type of cargo/passenger ships designed specifically for the traffic between Europe and its African colonies.