RESCUED, THANK GOD’

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21043, 21 February 1940, Page 8

RESCUED, THANK GOD’

IMPRISONED SAILORS ORDEAL ON THE ALTMARCK DUNEDIN MAN’S ACCOUNT “At the end of the third day we were rescued, # thank God.” A wealth of experience on the German prison ship Altmarck was crowded into this concluding sentence of Seaman W. J. Wheeler, of Dunedin, one of the rescued sailors, who broadcast from Daventry last night. A member of the Royal Naval Reserve, Seaman Wheeler was on the Doric Star when it was sunk by the Graf Spee. “Sometimes our small allowance of water was so cold we used to place it in the inverted electric-light shades, hoping to heat it, if only a little,” Seaman Wheeler said. “We were allowed only a quart of water each a day, and the food rations were very meagre. Each man was given two cakes of soap, and they had to last the whole time we were on board. “Sometimes we got sick of talking, so some of us played different games we had made ourselves. Several of the prisoners made really beautiful models of the ships they were sailing on when they were sunk. Sometimes, while we were playing one of the games we made up, we would deliberately cheat each other to start an argument—it gave us something to do.” Atmosphere Becomes Foul Toward the end of the trip they had on the Altmarck the atmosphere below decks was becoming so foul that the men set watches of two men each for two hours, so that if anything happened suddenly the watchers could give the others adequate notice. Once, through peep-holes they made in a scuttle, someone saw land on both sides of the Altmarck. The men guessed they were in a Norwegian fiord. “It was marvellous,” Seaman Wheeler concluded, "to see land, and it made us long to be ashore again. A day or two later we observed a boat close to us, and we tried to draw attention. We waved an improvised flag we had made from odd bits of stuff, but they did not notice it. The captain of the Altmarck did, though, and we were battened down for three days after that as punishment. None of us was allowed on deck, and the little food we were allowed was passed down to us.”