Acts of the Apostles 27

¹ When it had been decided that we should sail to Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handedover to a centurion cal ed Julius, of the Augustan cohort.

² We boarded a vessel from Adramyttium bound for ports on the Asiatic coast and put to sea; we hadAristarchus with us, a Macedonian of Thessalonica.

³ Next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius was considerate enough to al ow Paul to go to his friends to belooked after.

⁴ From there we put to sea again, but as the winds were against us we sailed under the lee of Cyprus,

⁵ then across the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, taking a fortnight to reach Myra in Lycia.

⁶ There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship leaving for Italy and put us aboard.

⁷ For some days we made little headway, and we had difficulty in making Cnidus. The wind would notal ow us to touch there, so we sailed under the lee of Crete off Cape Salmone

⁸ and struggled along the coast until we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹ A great deal of time had been lost, and navigation was already hazardous, since it was now wel afterthe time of the Fast, so Paul gave them this warning,

¹⁰ 'Friends, I can see this voyage will be dangerous and that we wil run considerable risk of losing notonly the cargo and the ship but also our lives as well.'

¹¹ But the centurion took more notice of the captain and the ship's owner than of what Paul was saying;

¹² and since the harbour was unsuitable for wintering, the majority were for putting out from there in thehope of wintering at Phoenix -- a harbour in Crete, facing south-west and north-west.

¹³ A southerly breeze sprang up and, thinking their objective as good as reached, they weighed anchorand began to sail past Crete, close inshore.

¹⁴ But it was not long before a hurricane, the 'north-easter' as they cal it, burst on them from across theisland.

¹⁵ The ship was caught and could not keep head to wind, so we had to give way to the wind and letourselves be driven.

¹⁶ We ran under the lee of a smal island called Cauda and managed with some difficulty to bring theship's boat under control.

¹⁷ Having hauled it up they used it to undergird the ship; then, afraid of running aground on the Syrtisbanks, they floated out the sea-anchor and so let themselves drift.

¹⁸ As we were thoroughly storm-bound, the next day they began to jettison the cargo,

¹⁹ and the third day they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands.

²⁰ For a number of days both the sun and the stars were invisible and the storm raged unabated until atlast we gave up al hope of surviving.

²¹ Then, when they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among the men. 'Friends,' hesaid, 'you should have listened to me and not put out from Crete. You would have spared yourselves al thisdamage and loss.

²² But now I ask you not to give way to despair. There wil be no loss of life at al , only of the ship.

²³ Last night there appeared beside me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,

²⁴ and he said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to appear before Caesar, and God grants youthe safety of al who are sailing with you."

²⁵ So take courage, friends; I trust in God that things will turn out just as I was told;

²⁶ but we are to be stranded on some island.'

²⁷ On the fourteenth night we were being driven one way and another in the Adriatic, when aboutmidnight the crew sensed that land of some sort was near.

²⁸ They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; after a short interval they sounded again and foundfifteen fathoms.

²⁹ Then, afraid that we might run aground somewhere on a reef, they dropped four anchors from thestern and prayed for daylight.

³⁰ When the crew tried to escape from the ship and lowered the ship's boat into the sea as though theymeant to lay out anchors from the bows, Paul said to the centurion and his men,

³¹ 'Unless those men stay on board you cannot hope to be saved.'

³² So the soldiers cut the boat's ropes and let it drop away.

³³ Just before daybreak Paul urged them al to have something to eat. 'For fourteen days', he said, 'youhave been in suspense, going hungry and eating nothing.

³⁴ I urge you to have something to eat; your safety depends on it. Not a hair of any of your heads wil belost.'

³⁵ With these words he took some bread, gave thanks to God in view of them al , broke it and began toeat.

³⁶ They al plucked up courage and took something to eat themselves.

³⁷ In al we were two hundred and seventy-six souls on board that ship.

³⁸ When they had eaten what they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the corn overboard intothe sea.

³⁹ When day came they did not recognise the land, but they could make out a bay with a beach; theyplanned to run the ship aground on this if they could.

⁴⁰ They slipped the anchors and let them fal into the sea, and at the same time loosened the lashings ofthe rudders; then, hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach.

⁴¹ But the cross-currents carried them into a shoal and the vessel ran aground. The bows were wedgedin and stuck fast, while the stern began to break up with the pounding of the waves.

⁴² The soldiers planned to kil the prisoners for fear that any should swim off and escape.

⁴³ But the centurion was determined to bring Paul safely through and would not let them carry out theirplan. He gave orders that those who could swim should jump overboard first and so get ashore,

⁴⁴ and the rest fol ow either on planks or on pieces of wreckage. In this way it happened that al camesafe and sound to land.