Over 300 Seamen Home In Triumph

Northern Advocate, 19 February 1940, Page 5

Over 300 Seamen Home In Triumph

(.Received noon.) LONDON, February 18. H.M.S. Cossack and over 300 British sailors rescued from the Altmarcic came home in triumph yesterday with an escort of Royal Air Force aeroplanes which had been responsible in the first place for locating the prison ship, and which co-operated with the warship throughout. During the passage from Norway to Leith the aeroplanes sighted four German mines directly in the path of the Cossack, and exploded two with their machine-guns. A destroyer disposed of the other pair. A great crowd had assembled at Leith and provided a mighty welcome. The majority of the men from the Altmarck were taken to hospital in a fleet of waiting ambulances. Later 150 of the men left the hospital at Leith. Most of them entrained for their homes on Tyneside, Yorkshire and London. Fifty of the British ex-captives arc suffering from stomach trouble owing ,lo the bad food during their three months’ imprisonment, and several of the sailors of H.M.S. Cossack were wounded in the fighting with the Germans. Immediately the boarding party got on board the Altmarck firing broke out on both sides, and Mr J. J. Smith, the gunner, who was in charge of one of the parties, was severely wounded. To Defeat Monotony. How the British captives on board the Altmarck beguiled their three months’ imprisonment in confined quarters was told by the master of one of the Graf Spec’s victims on his arrival at Leith. "Although we were prisoners it was necessary for us to have some kind of discipline among ourselves and also to organise some kind of amusement to relieve boredom,” he said. “There was not much that we could do, but we did the best we could with a few packs of cards, and we made others. "You should have seen some of the cards toward the end! Some were held together with cigarette paper ana some we had to re-mark. There were contract bridge schools and auction bridge schools, and some men played rummy. “We could not do much for exercise, but leapfrog was popular. Barter System. “We developed a barter system for the exchange of comforts, but toward the end prices got high. “Tobacco was exchanged at £1 for a pound of tobacco, . and matches were 6d a box. Some of the men were reduced to- trying to make the best of dried tea-leaves for smoking, “It was extraordinary how news spread, although we were prisoners in an enemy ship. We knew all about the Graf Spee the day before we were supposed 10. “When it was learned that the Graf Spee had been scuttled and that a search was being made for the Altmarck, all hands, including the ship’s doctors, were put to work painting the ship grey to resemble a British ship. Humane Doctor. “I mention the doctor because if ever there was a white man it was the ship’s doctor. He looked after our men as well as he looked after the ship’s crew. When we were leaving we looked around for him to thank him, but we could not find him. "We were a sort of separate crew on board, and we organised watches. Navigating officers managed to rig up a crude sextant. “We took observations each day when the sun shone • through a grating, and with these and the stars were could see through the grating we were able to plot our position on a cliart of the North and South Atlantic, which someone had smuggled aboard. We reached the Norwegian coast within a few hours of when we expected to be there.” Another ex-prisoner said: “Life was a continuous, never-ending struggle in warding off the point at which our minds would break.” Abominable Treatment.

Graphic accounts of their treatment on board the prison ship Altmarck were given by others. They were herded in compartments in which there was no room to move, and were only given a quart of water a day for drinking and washing. Food .was scarce. Their mattresses were in an indescribable condition. Machine-guns commanded the decks and any real or imagined insubordination was punished with solitary confinement in shocking conditions. The German captain has been described as a hard and bitter Nazi; A member of the crew of the Doric Star, W. Curtis, said prisoners were treated very badly. The skipper was a tyrant. “He installed a time bomb near their prison in order to blow up the ship if he were forced to abandon her. “Fortunately, the Brtlish Navy never gave him time,” Curtis added. James Wilkinson, a cleaner from the Doric Star, - said: “While I was on board the Altmarck I lost three stone in weight. She was a filthy ship.”