For the moment the immediate dangers were averted. The boat had been saved, and

the ship undergirt. But a great danger still threatened the ship.

What precisely is meant by the words "strake sail"? The literal translation is "they

lowered the gear", but this is indeterminate. To have scudded before the gale with bare

poles would have driven the ship on to the quicksands: to have anchored was impossible,

and the only other course open was that known as "lying to". This was accomplished by

bringing the prow of the vessel round as near to the wind as possible; that is, just enough

of the huge mainsail would be left to steady the ship, and, having made all the preparation

that circumstances permitted, the ship was left to drift broadside on, at the mercy of wind

and wave. All night long the gale continued, and it became necessary to "lighten the

ship". Conybeare and Howson draw attention to the change of tense in verses 18 and 19.

"They began to lighten the ship", or "kept lightening", whereas on the third day both

sailors and passengers united in throwing out all the spare gear into the sea. The ship had

now been reduced to a leaky and dismantled hulk,

Imagination falters as it tries to picture the physical and mental state of these

300 helpless souls. No fire could be lighted; no cooking done; no relief afforded from

the soaking spray; no prospect existed but that of an awful death in a foundering vessel.

In all this the Apostle and his companions took their share. It is certain that Paul, who in

other circumstances had said "these hands have ministered unto my necessities", would

have lent a willing hand in all the work necessitated by the dreadful storm. It has been

said that one of the hardest things to do is to refrain from saying "I told you so", and

Paul, before venturing once again to advise his fellow men, had fellowship in prayer with

God. In the result, however, Paul, in order to gain the confidence of his hearers, does

allude to his advice which had been rejected. Nevertheless he was able to assure them

that, although the ship would become a wreck, no life would be lost. The whole ship's

company, therefore, owed their safety to the fact that this one Jewish prisoner, by the will

of God, must reach Rome.

Paul added that he believed God, and that they would be cast upon a certain island.

The rate at which a vessel, which is laid-to, drifts, varies according to the build of the

ship and the intensity of the gale. In the circumstances of Acts 27:, both James Smith

and Admiral Penrose agree that "a mile and a half in the hour, or thirty-six miles in

twenty-four hours, may be taken as a fair average". After further technicalities the same

authorities conclude that the angle of drift would be thirteen points with the direction of

the wind. If the wind therefore was E.N.E., the course of the drift would be W. by N.,

"and such is nearly the bearing of the North Coast of Malta from the south side of

Clauda". There is no need to make a sinuous line to indicate the track of this doomed

vessel; the course would not deviate far from a straight line. "Adria" (27: 27) was the