Acts27chapter 27

Sailing on the Mediterranean was seasonal. The safe season ran roughly from late spring to mid-September; after that shipping was risky, and from November to March it effectively stopped. Luke marks the danger by saying the Fast had already passed — the Day of Atonement, in late September or October. They were sailing on borrowed time.

The second ship is from Alexandria and carries wheat. Egypt fed Rome, and the grain fleet was so vital that the state insured its shippers against loss to keep them sailing late. That is why a captain and owner would gamble on reaching a better harbour rather than wintering at Fair Havens, and why a centurion escorting prisoners could get passage for two hundred and seventy-six people on a cargo vessel.

The northeaster Luke names — Euraquilo, a hybrid Greek-Latin sailors' word — drives them under the lee of a small island where they haul the towed dinghy aboard and pass cables under the hull to hold the ship together. Then they run before it for two weeks with no sun or stars, which in an age of celestial navigation means no idea where they are.

The soundings tell the story of the last night: twenty fathoms, then fifteen. Sailors could hear surf before they could see land. Roman law made a guard answerable for escaped prisoners, which is why the soldiers propose killing them all, and why the centurion's decision to spare Paul saves every prisoner aboard.