Paul Sails Away, with Armed Escort
1When the decision was made to sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a Roman officer [1] named Julius. He served in the Augustan Battalion. [2] 2We boarded a ship from the home port of Adramyttium. [3] The ship was planning to sail north along the coast of Asia, [4] stopping in ports along the way. Traveling with us was a Macedonian man from the city of Thessalonica. His name was Aristarchus.3We left and then arrived the next day in the port at the city of Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul. He let Paul stay with friends Paul had there in Sidon. [5] Those friends took good care of Paul while he was with them. 4We left Sidon and put out to sea. We encountered some headwind, so we used the island of Cyprus as a windbreak. 5When we reached the open sea, we sailed along the coast. We sailed past the provinces of Cilicia and Pamphylia. Then we arrived at the city of Myra in the province of Lycia. [6] 6There, the Roman officer found another ship for us. It came from Alexandria, Egypt. Like us, it was headed for Italy. So we got on board. 7It was slow sailing for many days. It wasn’t easy, but we eventually arrived near the city of Cnidus. [7] We couldn’t sail any farther west. The wind wouldn’t let us. So we turned south and used the island of Crete as a windbreak, starting at the city of Salmone. 8We sailed past Salmone. It was hard to make any progress, but we finally came to a place called Fair Havens, close to the town of Lasea.
9By then we had lost a lot of time and were sailing in the dangerous season. The fast [8] was already over. So Paul offered his advice. [9] 10“Gentlemen,” Paul said. “It looks to me like you’re planning to continue this voyage. If you do, you’re putting a lot at risk: the cargo, the ship, and our lives.” 11The captain and the ship’s owner wanted to keep going. So the Roman officer took their advice over Paul’s. 12The harbor at Fair Havens was too open. It wasn’t a good place to anchor a ship for the stormy winter. The majority of souls on the ship decided to sail a little farther and try to reach the harbor at Phoenix, Crete. [10] It was better protected, with just two exposed openings: one facing southwest and the other facing northwest.
Nor’easter Pummels Ship for Two Weeks
13A gentle wind started blowing up from the south. It was just what the captain ordered. [11] They pulled up anchor and sailed alongside the coast of Crete, which was directly north of them, on the starboard (right) side of the ship. 14Suddenly a typhoon-like wind [12] blew in from the northeast, plowing right over the top of the island of Crete and smashing into the ship. [13] People called this violent wind a Nor’easter. [14] 15Once that wind took hold of our ship, there wasn’t a thing we could do to fight our way back to the island. We gave our ship to the wind, letting it push us wherever. 16We caught a bit of a windbreak from the island of Cauda [15] as we plowed by. That gave us time to hoist up the small lifeboat we had been towing. It was a hard job, but we got the small boat secured. 17Once we had hoisted the boat, we dropped ropes into the water and managed to slip them under the ship. This allowed us to wrap the hull with the ropes to help hold the ship together. As the storm blew us further south, we started to fear it would run us aground on the Syrtis [16] shallows and sandbars off the north coast of Africa. So we lowered the anchor as a brake to help slow us down. 18The violent storm kept pounding us. On the second day of the storm we started throwing cargo overboard. [17] 19On day three of the storm, we threw overboard the ship’s gear. [18] 20As the storm raged on day after day, blocking any possible view of the sun and stars, we gave up hope that we’d survive. 21The crew hadn’t eaten anything in a long time. So Paul talked to them about it. He said, “Guys, I told you so. You should have done what I told you to do. If you hadn’t left Crete, you wouldn’t be suffering all this damage and loss.Angel Onboard
22“I’m going to give you some more advice now. Cheer up. No one is going to die in this storm. The bad news, however, is that the ship won’t survive. 23Tonight an angel stood by me—an angel of God. I belong to this God, and I serve him. 24The angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You have to face Caesar. Listen to me, God has given you a gift. He has given you the lives of everyone sailing with you.’ 25So cheer up, gents. I trust God. I believe he will do what the angel told me. 26We do have to run aground on some island, though.”Sailors Try to Abandon Ship
27On the fourteenth night of the storm, the wind had driven us into the Adriatic Sea. At about midnight, the sailors started to sense we were getting close to land. 28They took soundings by dropping weighted ropes into the water. The line measured the depth at 120 feet (37 m). [19] 29Afraid the ship would run aground onto the rocky coast, the men dropped four anchors from the stern (back). Then they prayed for daybreak. 30The sailors decided to abandon ship. They sneaked the lifeboat down into the water, pretending they were dropping anchors from the bow (front). 31Paul caught them. He told the Roman officer and the soldiers with him, “If these men don’t stay on the ship, none of you will survive.” 32The soldiers cut the ropes that secured the lifeboat to the ship. The boat drifted away.33As dawn was about to break, Paul advised all the men to eat. He said, “For 14 days you’ve been so worried that you haven’t eaten. 34Come on now and take some food. You’re going to need it to survive. And you are going to survive this. You’re not going to lose even one measly hair from your head.” 35When Paul was done talking, he took some bread, and right out loud he thanked God for it. Then he tore off a piece of bread and started eating. 36This encouraged everyone enough that they took some food and ate it too. 37There were 276 of us onboard this ship. [20] 38When the men were done eating, they lightened the ship by tossing their wheat cargo into the sea.
Land Ahead, Steer for the Beach
39When daylight came, no one recognized the land. But they spotted a bay with a beach. They decided that would be a good place to run the ship aground and get out. 40They cut loose the anchors, which dropped into the sea. Then they untied the ropes that held the rudders. [21] They hoisted the front sail and steered for the beach onshore. 41They didn’t make it. They ran aground in the shallows offshore. The front of the ship lodged so firmly into a reef or a shoal that it wouldn’t budge—even while heavy waves started breaking up the back of the ship.42Soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so none of them would swim away and escape. 43The officer in charge, though, didn’t want to see Paul die. So he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard and swim to shore. 44Those who couldn’t swim were to float in on boards or anything else on the ship that could float. As it turned out, everyone got safely ashore.
