Chapter XXIX. THE SHIP RUNS AGROUND.

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St. Luke having mentioned the undergirding of the ship, adds, "and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven."

The ship being unable to resist the wind blowing strongly from the north-east, must of necessity be carried into the Gulf of Syrtis Minor, on the African coast; but before reaching it, the vessel would have to pass a dangerous bank of sand on the coast of Africa. This bank was of great extent, and any ship that was carried upon it would gradually sink, and sink into the sand, until it was quite buried. The sailors, fearing such a fate for their ship, took down all the sails, so that the wind might have less power over it. In this condition the ship was at the mercy of the wind and waves; and was driven here and there, without power to help herself. All on board the ship were now in a dreadful situation: exposed to the fury of a wind which blew them sometimes one way and sometimes another. In order to make the ship lighter, so that it might more easily rise to the top of the waves, the seamen first threw overboard the cargo of wheat carried by the ship, and then even the very ropes and sails belonging to it. But the storm continued, the sky was dark with clouds, and as there was no possibility of help, all gave themselves up for lost, and expected to be swallowed up in this tempestuous sea. Under such circumstances, all regular habits were at an end; no one thought of taking food, and consequently the strength of all was rapidly becoming less and less. St. Luke's account is, "And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before CÆsar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island."

St. Paul's words and his steadfast faith, must have been a comfort to his fellow voyagers; and if any of the heathens were then inclined to believe in the God Whose servant he was, their faith would be confirmed by all that took place afterwards.

We next read in the Book of Acts, "But when the fourteenth night was come," (think of being fourteen days in such an awful position!) "as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day."

The ancients seem to have given the name of "Adria," to that part of the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and the south of Italy, extending up into what we call the Adriatic Sea; here, by the force of the wind and the currents, the ship was driven backwards and forwards, even as far as the islands off the coast of Dalmatia.

"Sounding" means measuring how deep the sea is: this is done by means of a piece of lead fastened to a very long string, called "the line," which has marks upon it, to show the number of feet. The lead of course sinks straight down into the water: if it touches the bottom of the sea, it is immediately drawn up, and by observing how much of the line is wet, they can tell how deep the sea is in any particular spot. As every ship has a good portion of it below the water, she requires a certain depth of water to keep her from touching the bottom. The sea generally becomes less deep near the shore, and thus when the shipmen found that the depth of the sea had diminished from twenty to fifteen fathoms, it was high time to wait for daylight to see where they were; lest during the night the ship should run upon some land, or rock, or sandbank, and so be lost. A fathom is seven feet, so that twenty fathoms were 140 feet, and fifteen 105 feet.

In order to understand what follows, we must remember that although now anchors are always let down from the prow, or fore part of the ship, it was the custom of the ancients to let them down from the stern, or hind part of their vessels. Some of the large Egyptian ships do even now carry their anchors at the stern, and not at the prow. The vessel in which St. Paul was, was anchored from the stern by four anchors, to wait for daylight.

It seems that some of the shipmen, or sailors, seeing the dangerous condition of the ship, thought they should be safer out of it; and so without any consideration for others, made up their minds to steal away secretly during the night, taking the boat with them; under pretence that their only object in now leaving the ship, was to make its position more secure, by letting down some anchors from the prow also. St. Luke says, "And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off."

Of course the Lord could equally have saved the passengers, whether the sailors remained in the ship or not; but it was His Will that all should be delivered in one way; and perhaps this was intended to be a test of faith and obedience. The Roman soldiers certainly had faith in St. Paul as the servant of a Mighty God, to Whom all things are possible, and Whose promise would be assuredly fulfilled: therefore they at once took effectual means to prevent any one leaving the ship, by cutting the ropes which still held the boat, and letting it drift away.

According to the opinion of man, they did a very foolish act in getting rid of a boat, which might be of the greatest use to them. At Crete they had "believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul"; but they had had good reason to change their opinion, and to believe that the Apostle was indeed guided by his God; and their faith made them obedient. "And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you"; meaning, that no one would suffer the slightest injury, but that it was necessary for them to take some food, that they might have strength for all that they would be called upon to do. To his precept, the Apostle added example; for "when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat." Even at such a moment, St. Paul did not forget to give God thanks for his food. The whole company in the ship would thus see how constantly he thought of God, and endeavoured to do Him honour; and heathens though they were, his example must have taught them to think with reverence of the God of the Christians. Mean time the calm and firm trust displayed by the whole conduct of the Apostle, gave comfort and encouragement to all. "Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat." St. Luke tells us how many people there were on board the ship: for he says, "And we were all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls," or 276 persons. "And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea." This wheat was probably the remainder of their provisions for the voyage, for the cargo seems to have been thrown overboard before: but perhaps the owner of the vessel had tried to keep some of the cargo, in hope of still carrying it to Italy: but now, finding that hope was vain, he consented to let it be cast out, so as to lighten the ship, and render her more likely to go safely on shore. Whilst, under all circumstances, we put our whole trust in God, Who alone can bless any of our efforts with success, we must never forget that it is our duty to use all our efforts, and make use of every means which the Lord places within our reach.

"And when it was day, they knew not the land," the shore which they saw was that of a strange land; "but they discovered a certain creek with a shore," a narrow arm of the sea, with a shore on each side; into this creek "they were minded," that is, they wished "to thrust in the ship," as it would then be easier for those on board to get to shore.

"And when they had taken up the anchors," or rather cut the ropes which held the ship to them, "they committed themselves unto the sea," that is, left the ship to be carried along by the wind and waves, "and loosed the rudder bands," which appear to have been ropes used to fasten the rudder, so as to steer the ship in any particular direction; "and hoised up the mainsail," to give the wind more power to move the ship, and so "made toward shore."

The wind now seemed likely to take them into the creek; but at the entrance of it, there appears to have been a headland or bank of earth, which caused a strong current from two sides, so that two seas might be said to meet. As they could not guide the ship to go round either end of this barrier, the wind drove it directly upon it. St. Luke's account is, "And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves." It was now evident that the ship must go to pieces in a few minutes, and that to remain in it would be certain death.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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