18. The Prisoner and the Shipwreck

(Acts 27)

“All aboard!” cried the captain of a sailing-vessel which was just loosing from the wharf to sail out to sea. There, on the deck, was a number of prisoners, guarded by soldiers. One of these prisoners was Paul, who had been seized in the temple at Jerusalem and nearly killed by a riotous mob. Forty men had secretly vowed not to eat or drink until they had killed him. The captain of the temple, being Paul’s friend, told him about the plot, and sent him in the night with a guard of soldiers to the governor’s house in a distant city. Paul said to the governor: “I want to have my case tried in Rome before the emperor, for I am a Roman citizen!” So Paul was sent as a prisoner to Rome on this sailing-vessel. Some of his friends were with him. One was “the beloved physician,” Doctor Luke, who had often traveled with him on his missionary journeys and who is the man that tells this story. Out upon the great sea the ship sailed until it came to a wharf where there was a large wheat-ship sailing to Rome. Paul and the soldiers were put on board this wheat-ship. Counting the soldiers and passengers there were two hundred and seventy-six people in all. Soon their troubles began. The wind was blowing the wrong way, so that they had to go very slowly. But at last they came to Fair Havens, where they stayed much too long, Paul thought, for the stormy season of the year had come. Paul said, “You ought to stay here for the winter.” But the captain of the soldiers only made fun of him. The weather just then seemed good, so they pulled up the anchors, hoisted the sails, and put out from Fair Havens. Hardly had they started when a terrible storm broke upon them, driving the ship far out of its course. The ship was in danger of breaking in two so that they had to throw great ropes around the ship to hold it together. Then they lowered the sails and let the vessel drift. For two weeks they were tossed and driven by the storm, not seeing the sun or stars. One night God sent to Paul an angel who said to him, “Fear not, Paul, you shall reach Rome in safety, and God will save all in the ship with you.” Early in the morning Paul said to the sailors and soldiers, “Be of good cheer, God will save you all.” They made fun of him, and the ship drifted on until in the darkness of the night they found they were near some island. They quickly threw out four anchors to save them from being dashed on the rocks, and longed for the morning! As soon as daylight came and they saw the land, some selfish sailors at the front of the boat pretending to put out some more anchors, lowered the rowboat, and were just getting ready to row away to the land, thinking only of saving themselves, when Paul saw their trick and cried out to the soldiers, “Look! except these men abide in the ship you yourselves cannot be saved!” No one made fun of Paul then, but the soldiers ran and cut away the rope of the boat and let the boat fall into the sea and drift away. After they had eaten food they threw all their wheat overboard to lighten the ship. As that did not help, they decided to run the ship upon the shore, but the bow struck the beach and the stern was broken to pieces by the fury of the waves. Some of the soldiers said, “Kill all the prisoners, lest they swim to the shore and escape.” But the captain of the soldiers, who had grown to think much of Paul, said: “No, but let each man who can swim jump overboard and swim for the shore first.” This they did, and the others, including Paul and Doctor Luke, followed on planks and other floating things from the ship. And all escaped safe to the land. So Paul, the prisoner, was right; the ship was lost, but God had saved all the two hundred and seventy-six men in the ship with him!