Acts 27:1–20

Paul Sails for Rome

27When it was decided that we^o would sail for Italy,^p Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.^{q 2}We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia,^r and we put out to sea. Aristarchus,^s a Macedonian^t from Thessalonica,^u was with us.

³The next day we landed at Sidon;^v and Julius, in kindness to Paul,^w allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.^{x 4}From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.^{y 5}When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia^z and Pamphylia,^a we landed at Myra in Lycia. ⁶There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship^b sailing for Italy^c and put us on board. ⁷We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course,^d we sailed to the lee of Crete,^e opposite Salmone. ⁸We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement.^af So Paul warned them, ¹⁰“Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.”^{g 11}But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. ¹²Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete,^h facing both southwest and northwest.

The Storm

¹³When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. ¹⁴Before very long, a wind of hurricane force,ⁱ called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. ¹⁵The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat^j secure, ¹⁷so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground^k on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor^b and let the ship be driven along. ¹⁸We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard.^{l 19}On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.