Leith, Feb. 19.
Three hundred and twenty-six happy, haggard mariners returned from a "living death" yesterday, when the British destroyer Cossack, which rescued them from the German steamship Altmark, landed them at Leith yesterday afternoon.
As they were helped from the ship into waiting ambulances, the rescued mariners told of the suffering and mental agony they met with aboard the "Hell Ship" Altmark, on which they were prisoners from two to four months.
Thousands of Britons crowded the shore as the Cossack landed to cheer the weak, emaciated sailors as they staggered down the gang planks and entered the 25 ambulances and 20 busses converted into ambulances that awaited them.
James Wilkinson. a cleaner from the freighter Doric Star, said he had been aboard the Altmark for three months. "It was all bad," he said. "In the morning. we were fed black bread and a bowl of wish-washy soup. My ribs feel like they are sticking, through my jacket."
The rescued men had long beards and their clothing was tattered. Thomas Hunter, sixteen years of age, the youngest among those rescued, had been a cadet on the steamer Newton Beach, which the Admiral Graf Spee captured on October 5. He grinned as he was brought down the gang plank to an ambulance—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.