The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-14
LUMBER SHIP IN
 PORT, CRIPPLED
 BY HARD VOYAGE
Another Ship Reaches Port Minus One of Crew, Frog
 en To Death.
MAY HAVE
 BEEN FUGITIVE SPY
Helen Montague Takes 9
 Days For Eight Days Journey Along Coast.

y
 The Helen Montague. Capt. James Balmer, from St. Johns. Nova Scotia, with a. cargo of lumber for the Frank Miller Lumber Co.,, 1inped into port this morning under jury-rig, reporting one of the toughest trips in the 30 years experience of the skipper. With her .fore-topmast and back stays parted her bow, sides, deck load and furled sails coated with shimmerinE ice, and with a, short handed crew, the Montague showed the effects of storm. Captain Balmer talked freely of his troubles as the big three master finally lay at her berth at East Washington avenue.
 To add to dincuIties from storm, conditions forced the good ship into five ports on the way down, consurn- ing 22 days against which the usual eight required in clear weather, the British governmen had sought him in connection with a former seaman, now in the Dorchester penitentiary. He had a desertion, too, at Portland, Me, that is believed by the crew to mean that a German spy made his get-away from Nova Scotia in the nick of time, but left the crew shorthand ed and without the happinpss of a "cooky'' that is so essential in time of storm.
  the schooner American Team, code J. R. s. T., of Rockland, Me, long overdue at the Singer Manufacturing Go, Bridgeport. The American Team was lying to for repairs off Gloucester.
 The Montague is a three-masted schooner, hailing from Boston, crew of seven men. 370 tons burden and carried a deck1oad of 4O6, 900 feet of spruce planking for the local concern. Not a strip had been lost overb oard though the head7seas had continu- ously washed oveE fore and aft.
 Speaking of the trip today the skip per said: We left St. John's with fair winds. We had not sooner left the Bay of FAndy than we encounter ed head-seas and winds that kept us awash most of the time. The snow and sleet was hard on the men and encased the spars and riggings in heavy ice. On the sixth day we struck a sudden squa1I. In trying to let the topsails go, as we 1abored un- der the blow. we found that they were fast. It was necessary that men be sent aloft to cut away the frozen ropes.
 The back-stays parted on the fore As we lay-to we managed to recover the broken mast and sails, which we later cut down and re-rigged, coming through with the jury rigging"
 The broken mast caused much com ment as the ship came up the bay under tow this morning.
 t'Bi1l'' Libby, the cook who had been shipped at St. Johns, N. B., went over the side at Portland, where the Mon tague put in under storm signals. Libby was supposed by the British authorities to be an Englishman, but there were rumors among the crew today that he was German spy who sought information for his government and took the first opportunity to get out of St. Johns. where nearly 30O,- 900 men are now training for service at the front. He made his escape by waiting for him alongside the ship just as it was clearing Portland,
 A letter which reached. Capt. Ba1mer just as he got under way in St. Johns harbor from the Dominion Parole of fee asked information about James Reginald Evans, a former sailor on the Montague. It appears that Evans, believed to be an American sailor, is under arrest but the charge on winch he is held is not specified. The schoon- CT did not return to answer the Ques- tions asked by the Dominion prison authorities but a letter was sent from this port today giving him a clean bill of health while working on the 1 ship.
 The severity of the storms encoun- tered by the Montague may be seen by the necessity of the ship putting in at Brandford harbor, Little Machias. Boothbay, Me, Portland, Me, Glou- cester Mass, and passing through the newly opened Cape Cod canal.
 "It is one of the worst trips I have ever made" said Capt. Balmer today.
 At the Singer Sewing Machine Co. | in this city 1t is said that no report of the schooner American Team coming to Bridgeport has been received from 1 their New York offices. It is local be- l lief that the American Team is carry | i''~ sewing machines from New York | to St. John.
 The Harold B. Cousens with lumber for the A. w. Burritt Go. of this city, | which also arrived this morning, lost man by his being frozen to death on the way down. A deck hand, Tens Olson, who shipped with the Cousens at St Johns, New Brunswick, was found dead from the cold off Little Michias Harbor, Me.
 The Cousens' trip was paralled to that of the Montague She left St.
 Continued on Page 2.)