Gorch Fock

Born Johann Wilhelm Kinau in Finkenwerder near Hamburg in 1880, he wrote under the pen name Gorch Fock and also used the names Jakob Holst and Giorgio Focco. He was the son of a sea fisherman, and that background shaped much of his writing.

While working in commercial jobs in places including Bremen, Halle, and Hamburg, he began publishing stories and poems, often in Plattdeutsch, the Low German dialect of his home region. His best-known book, Seefahrt ist Not!, appeared in 1913 and became closely associated with his evocation of North Sea fishing life.

During World War I he served first in the infantry and later in the navy. He died on May 31, 1916, in the Battle of Jutland aboard the cruiser Wiesbaden, leaving behind a body of work remembered for its strong sense of place, dialect, and life at sea.