I N D E X
172
At the close of the fourteenth night, the sailors deemed that they drew near to land. Taking soundings they found
`twenty fathoms', and after an interval `fifteen fathoms' were reported.
`Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the
day' (27:29).
It is usual for a vessel to anchor from the prow, but there would have been a danger of the ship swinging round
and being smashed on the rocks. It is said that `Lord Nelson, reading this chapter just before the battle of
Copenhagen, ordered our vessels to be anchored by the stern'. There was also the ulterior object in view, which was
to run the ship ashore as soon as daylight enabled them to select a suitable spot. Modern Greek vessels may still be
seen anchoring by the stern in the Golden Horn. There is a painting on the walls of Herculaneum which represents
`a ship so strictly contemporaneous with that of St. Paul, that there is nothing impossible in the supposition that the
artist had taken his subject from the very ship, on loosing from the pier at Puteoli'.
Thirteen days had elapsed since the ship started to drift. According to the computation given a little earlier, the
ship must, therefore, have covered about 468 miles. Now the distance between Clauda and Malta is less than 480
miles, and there is every reason therefore to believe that the island now known as Malta is the one intended in Acts
28:1, there called Melita.
An attempt of the shipmen to escape was frustrated by the prompt act of the soldiers in cutting the ropes holding
the boat, Paul having said, `Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved'. Exhorting all to take food, adding,
`not a hair shall fall from the head of any of you', Paul thanked God in the presence of them all; and when he had
`broken bread' he began to eat. It seems incredible that any writer, possessed of the ability to write a commentary
on the whole of the Scriptures, should be so possessed of the value of the `sacraments' as to suggest `that this act
may have been connected with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist'.
Even those who retain the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, must exclaim here, `Save me from my friends!'
`And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which
they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they
committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and
made toward shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground' (Acts 27:39-41).
The harbour of Valetta was seven miles away and the place where the ship struck was Ras el Koura, which is an
iron-bound coast, but the mariners saw that at one extremity the cliffs sank down into a flat beach. To make a tack
athwart the wind with a disabled ship was a manoeuvre by no means easy, but it was worth attempting. The anchors
were cut away, the ropes falling into the sea (not, as the A.V., `committed themselves unto the sea'), and the paddle
rudders which had been lashed out of the way of the anchors were loosed, and they made for the shore. Again the
influence of the apostle was exerted and the lives of the prisoners spared, and at length the whole company, on spars
and pieces of wreckage, escaped safely through (diasothenai) to land.
We present the remainder of the evidence gathered by Conybeare and Howson for the belief that the island `Melita'
is the modern `Malta'.
(1)
The presence of breakers, yet without striking the land.
(2)
The direction and distance of the drifting vessel (already indicated).
(3)
The soundings, 20 fathoms, then 15 fathoms.
(4)
The presence, on a rocky coast, of a sandy beach.
(5)
The opening, `a place between two seas'.
(6)
The fact that the anchors held all night.
Every one or these items find substantiation in the features of the eastern boundary of what today is called St.
Paul's Bay, Malta. Even as to the character of the anchorage, the comment on St. Paul's Bay in `The English
Sailing Directions' is, `While the cables hold, there is no danger, as the anchors will never start'.