HMS Cossack boards Altmark in the fjord

Initial resistance to Cossack's boarding party was limited, and the first shots remain disputed. With Altmark's divided merchant and naval command, the absence of an official weapons issue would not rule out individual men using guns. A struggle developed over the bridge, including attempts to change the ship's speed, though accounts differ over which German officer operated the controls. Some Germans tried to retake the ship, prompting British machine-gun fire. Most of Altmark's crew escaped across the ice. Letting them go and leaving the ship behind may have been a limited concession to Norwegian neutrality once the prisoners were free.