London, Feb. 18, {audacity of a British naval officer caused the Altmark to'
go ashore, enabling a boarding party to reach the vessel, according to a story told by one of the British: prisoners released from the German "hell-ship."
"We were running between rocks in pitch blackness, and ice on the top of the water was crackling)
we moved," the man said.
"A British destroyer came darting intending to board the Altmark, The German skipper swung, his wheel and tried to ram the Cossack.
"Suddenly one of the officers of the boarding party leaped! eight feet on to the lower deck of the Altmark, pushed aside German guards who came rushing up, raced to the bridge and rang the telegraph "full speed astern," with the result that the Altmark went hard ashore. 'This officer went to the captain's cabin, and as the opened the door a booby trap' went off. It was a revolver fixed to fire when the door was opened, and it wounded him in the arm.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.