The voyage begins
1When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan Cohort. 2We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, and put out to sea; Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and allowed him to go to his friends and be cared for. 4From there we put out again and sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. 5We crossed the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and came to Myra in Lycia. 6There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy and put us aboard. 7For many days we made slow headway and barely managed to come off Cnidus; and since the wind would not let us hold our course, we sailed under the lee of Crete, off Salmone. 8Hugging the coast with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous, since even the Fast was over. So Paul warned them: 10“Men, I can see that this voyage is going to bring disaster and heavy loss, not only to the cargo and the ship but to our own lives.” 11But the centurion trusted the helmsman and the ship’s owner rather than what Paul said. 12Since the harbor was unsuitable for wintering, most of them were in favor of putting out from there in the hope of reaching Phoenix and wintering at that harbor of Crete, which faces southwest and northwest.
The Euraquilo
13When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had what they wanted, weighed anchor and coasted along Crete, close inshore. 14But before long a hurricane wind, the one called the Euraquilo, swept down from the island. 15The ship was caught and could not face into the wind, so we gave way and were driven along. 16Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to get control of the ship’s boat. 17After hoisting it aboard they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear and let themselves be carried along. 18The storm battered us so violently that the next day they began throwing the cargo overboard, 19and on the third day they threw out the ship’s tackle with their own hands. 20For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, the storm kept raging, and in the end every hope of our being saved was slipping away. 21They had gone a long time without food. Then Paul stood up among them and said: “Men, you should have listened to me and not put out from Crete; you would have spared yourselves this injury and loss. 22But now I urge you: take heart. Not one life among you will be lost — only the ship. 23Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar; and God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you.’ 25So take heart, men. I trust God that it will turn out exactly as I was told. 26We are bound to run aground on some island.”
The fourteenth night
27On the fourteenth night, as we were being driven across the Adriatic, about midnight the sailors sensed that land was near. 28They took a sounding and found twenty fathoms; a little further on they sounded again and found fifteen. 29Afraid that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30The sailors were trying to escape from the ship. They had lowered the boat into the sea on the pretext of laying out anchors from the bow, 31when Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32So the soldiers cut the boat’s ropes and let it fall away. 33As day was about to break, Paul urged them all to eat something. “For fourteen days now,” he said, “you have been waiting in suspense, going without food, eating nothing. 34So I urge you to eat: it will keep you alive. Not one of you will lose a hair from his head.” 35With that he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it and began to eat. 36They were all encouraged, and took food themselves. 37In all we were two hundred and seventy-six souls on board. 38When they had eaten their fill they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
Shipwreck, and everyone saved
39When day came they did not recognize the land, but they could make out a bay with a beach, and they decided to run the ship ashore there if they could. 40They cut away the anchors and left them in the sea, untied the ropes of the steering-oars, hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. 41But they struck a sandbank between two currents and ran the vessel aground; the bow stuck fast and would not move, while the stern began to break up under the pounding of the waves. 42The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them could swim away and escape. 43But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from carrying it out. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, 44and the rest to follow on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it happened that everyone came safely to shore.
