The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-11
THE LUCKY SCHOONER
NO HARM HAS COME TO HER
 IN 4 QUARTER

Has Smiled Under St. AnthOny's Pro- lection Ever Since.
 A little schooner with a long name and wonderful history arrived in port yesterday from Havana. She flies the flag of Spain and is commanded by naughty Spaniard. How she came by the formidable name of Antonio Possible is long story, which Captain Gabriel Alemany tells in a deep bass tone that has descended to him, he says, through many generations of proud Spanish ancestors.
 A three-masted, 149-ton schooner was launched at Port Jefferson, L. l., in 1878. She was named the E. B. Darling and was trim. graceful craft, but be- yond that there was nothing to distin- guish her from the ordinary run of schooners, nor was there anything re- markable in her sailing away on her maiden voyage to the Canary Islands with a cargo of lumber and good wishes. She arrived at Las Palmas early in May and anchored. A terrific hurricane sprang up, and after riding 
 landed high and dry far up on the beach.
 In Las Palmas everybody takes an active interest in anything that hap pens. The population is perpetual committee on the whole. So, when the E. B. Darling was found lying like wounded gull, the merchants, the skip pers, the consuls and the doctors, after an exhaustive examination. decided that she could not be hauled off, and that she might as well be chopped up Efor firewood.
 In Las Palmas there lived at that time a knowing skipper named Tomas Bosch, who did not express any opin- ion until word had been sent to the American owner that the E. B. Darling was a wreck and orders had been re- ceived from him to sell her for what she would bring. When the vessel was up at auction Tomas Bosch brought her for a song.
 What are you going to do with herr" asked Manuel Vincenzo, who was the oldest skipper on the island, and whose word was final and absolute in all matters pertaining to the sea.
 Float her." replied Bosch, whereat Manuel Vincenzo and the other skip pers, and all Las Palmas, took differ ent means of expressing their opinion that he was crazy.
 Wait till the 18th" said he.
 The 18th of June is the feast of St. Anthony and Tomas had said: with St. Anthony's aid 1t is possible to get her off" St. Anthony's day came, and the ingenious skipper, by using old spiles and lots of grease, was able to start the schooner on her way to the water. Two days of hard work com pleted his job, and the little vessel was again afloat.
 The first thing he did was to obliter- ate the name of E. B. Darling and paint in it's stead San Antonio a Posible,' which. freely translated, means that if St. Anthony Is with you everything is possible. That happened just twentyfour years ago last month and the protection of the good saint seems to have remained with the stout craft. her captain, and her crew, for in all that time. though the San An tonic Possible has travelled ali around the world, in all sorts of winds and seas, she has not lost even a bobstay, and moreover has been source of great profit to her owner, who, accord ing to the sign over the establishment in Las Palmas is "Viudad de Tomas Bosch"
 "The Widow of Tomas Bosch" for that is what the sign means, now owns a little feet about the size of the one which brought Columbus over some hundreds of years ago, and the San Antonio Possible is no bigger than was the Santa Maria of Columbus. She is about the smallest schooner that travels her long circuit Her regular track is from the Canaries to the West Indies. to South America, to Canada to New England ports and New York and during her quarter of century's S service she has been here several times. Usually she carries oil, lumber fruits and onions, but on this last trip she came in ballast.
 Notwithstanding the crews great de- votion to the good saint, there are no Images of him aboard the schooner.
 T am the only saint there" says the captain with twinkle in his eye.
 Some of the less religious of the crew attribute the schooner's charmed life mainly to Captain Alemany, who went to sea when he was eight years old and was made captain of a 250-ton schooner wben he was only twenty He counts about 45 years now. and were he logged out in laces and ruffies he would look as if he might have stepped from one of Velasquez's canvases which hang in the Escorial near Madrid.
 Captain Alemany has commanded the San Antonio a Possible ever since the day that Tomas Bosch f1oated her in the roadstead of Las Palmas. During the Spanish American war he took a cargo of lumber from Lanzarote in the Canaries. to Trinidad. where he dis charged his cargo and took aboard a full cargo of rum for Morocco. At no time was he molested by American vessels.
 The San Antonio Possible is now ly- ing off Bergen Point She will be lowed tomorrow to Erie Pasia to have her bottom scraped. Then, just as she did on her maiden voyage twenty-four years ago. she will start for Las Palmas with cargo of lumber. This time, however, she will not be tossed upon the beach, for said Captain Almany yesterday: