Acts 27

₁When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to Julius, an officer in the Roman regiment called “The Emperor's Regiment”. ₂We went aboard a ship from Adramyttium, which was ready to leave for the seaports of the province of Asia, and we sailed away. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. ₃The next day we arrived at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul and allowed him to go and see his friends, to be given what he needed. ₄We went on from there, and because the winds were blowing against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus. ₅We crossed over the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and came to Myra in Lycia. ₆There the officer found a ship from Alexandria that was going to sail for Italy, so he put us aboard.

₇We sailed slowly for several days and with great difficulty finally arrived off the town of Cnidus. The wind would not let us go any further in that direction, so we sailed down the sheltered side of the island of Crete, passing by Cape Salmone. ₈We kept close to the coast and with great difficulty came to a place called Safe Harbours, not far from the town of Lasea.

₉We spent a long time there, until it became dangerous to continue the voyage, for by now the Day of Atonement was already past. So Paul gave them this advice: ₁₀“Men, I see that our voyage from here on will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and to the ship, and loss of life as well.” ₁₁But the army officer was convinced by what the captain and the owner of the ship said, and not by what Paul said. ₁₂The harbour was not a good one to spend the winter in; so most people were in favour of putting out to sea and trying to reach Phoenix, if possible, in order to spend the winter there. Phoenix is a harbour in Crete that faces south-west and north-west.

₁₃A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought that they could carry out their plan, so they pulled up the anchor and sailed as close as possible along the coast of Crete. ₁₄But soon a very strong wind — the one called “North-easter” — blew down from the island. ₁₅It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind. ₁₆We got some shelter when we passed to the south of the little island of Cauda. There, with some difficulty, we managed to make the ship's boat secure. ₁₇They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight round the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind. ₁₈The violent storm continued, so on the next day they began to throw some of the ship's cargo overboard, ₁₉and on the following day they threw part of the ship's equipment overboard. ₂₀For many days we could not see the sun or the stars, and the wind kept on blowing very hard. We finally gave up all hope of being saved.

₂₁After those on board had gone a long time without food, Paul stood before them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete; then we would have avoided all this damage and loss. ₂₂But now I beg you, take heart! Not one of you will lose your life; only the ship will be lost. ₂₃For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship came to me ₂₄and said, ‘Don't be afraid, Paul! You must stand before the Emperor. And God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you.’ ₂₅So take heart, men! For I trust in God that it will be just as I was told. ₂₆But we will be driven ashore on some island.”

₂₇It was the fourteenth night, and we were being driven about in the Mediterranean by the storm. About midnight the sailors suspected that we were getting close to land. ₂₈So they dropped a line with a weight tied to it and found that the water was forty metres deep; a little later they did the same and found that it was thirty metres deep. ₂₉They were afraid that the ship would go on the rocks, so they lowered four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight. ₃₀Then the sailors tried to escape from the ship; they lowered the boat into the water and pretended that they were going to put out some anchors from the front of the ship. ₃₁But Paul said to the army officer and soldiers, “If the sailors don't stay on board, you have no hope of being saved.” ₃₂So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the boat and let it go.

₃₃Just before dawn, Paul begged them all to eat some food: “You have been waiting for fourteen days now, and all this time you have not eaten anything. ₃₄I beg you, then, eat some food; you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost.” ₃₅After saying this, Paul took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, broke it, and began to eat. ₃₆They took heart, and every one of them also ate some food. ₃₇There was a total of 276 of us on board. ₃₈After everyone had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing all the wheat into the sea.

₃₉When day came, the sailors did not recognize the coast, but they noticed a bay with a beach and decided that, if possible, they would run the ship aground there. ₄₀So they cut off the anchors and let them sink in the sea, and at the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars. Then they raised the sail at the front of the ship so that the wind would blow the ship forward, and we headed for shore. ₄₁But the ship hit a sandbank and went aground; the front part of the ship got stuck and could not move, while the back part was being broken to pieces by the violence of the waves.

₄₂The soldiers made a plan to kill all the prisoners, in order to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping. ₄₃But the army officer wanted to save Paul, so he stopped them from doing this. Instead, he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim ashore; ₄₄the rest were to follow, holding on to the planks or to some broken pieces of the ship. And this was how we all got safely ashore.