 |  |
name given to the part of the Mediterranean between Greece, Italy and Africa, and
Josephus uses this same name "Adria" when he was shipwrecked and landed at Puteoli.
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 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 for the shore. And
falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground" (27: 40, 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