¹Since it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a Roman commander named Julius. He belonged to the Imperial Guard and led 100 men.

²We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia. When we headed out to sea, Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, came with us.

³The next day we landed at Sidon. There Julius kindly let Paul visit his friends so they could give him things he needed.

⁴From there we headed out to sea again and went along the calmer side of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

⁵We sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia. Then we landed at Myra in Lycia.

⁶There the commander found a ship from Alexandria that was sailing for Italy, and he put us on board.

⁷We didn’t make much progress for many days, and we had trouble getting to Cnidus. The wind wasn’t letting us stay on course, so we went along the calmer side of Crete, opposite Salmone.

⁸It wasn’t easy to sail along that coast. But we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹We were well behind schedule, and sailing had become dangerous because it was now fall when the seas grew rougher—the Day of Atonement was already past. Paul gave everyone a warning.

¹⁰“Men,” he said, “I can see that our trip is going to end in disaster. The ship and everything it’s carrying will be lost. Our own lives will be in danger too.”

¹¹But the commander didn’t listen to what Paul said. Instead, he followed the advice of the pilot and the ship’s owner.

¹²That harbor wasn’t a good place for ships to stay through the winter, so most of the people wanted to sail on. They hoped we could reach Phoenix and spend the winter there. That was a harbor in Crete that faced both southwest and northwest.

¹³A gentle south wind began to blow, and the ship’s crew thought that gave them a chance to leave safely. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.

¹⁴But before long, a Northeaster as strong as a hurricane blew down from the island.

¹⁵The ship was caught by the storm, and we couldn’t keep it sailing into the wind. So we gave up and let the wind drive us along.

¹⁶We passed along the calmer side of a small island called Cauda. We almost lost the lifeboat that was tied to the side of the ship,

¹⁷but the men lifted it on board. Then they tied ropes around the ship itself to hold it together. They were afraid it would get stuck on the sandbars of Syrtis, so they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

¹⁸We were taking such a bad beating from the storm that the next day the crew began to jettison the cargo and supplies.

¹⁹On the third day, they even threw the ship’s tools and the rest of the supplies overboard with their own hands.

²⁰When the sun and stars didn’t appear for many days and the storm kept raging, we gave up all hope of being saved.

²¹By then the men hadn’t eaten for a long time. Paul stood up in front of them and said, “Men, you should have taken my advice and not sailed from Crete. Then you would have avoided this harm and loss.

²²But now I beg you to be strong, because none of you are going to die. Only the ship will be destroyed.

²³Last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood beside me.

²⁴The angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You need to get to Rome to stand trial before Caesar, and God will generously spare the lives of all those sailing with you.’

²⁵So men, be strong. I have faith in God that everything will happen just as he told me.

²⁶But we have to run the ship onto the beach of some island.”

²⁷On the 14th night the wind was still pushing us across the Adriatic Sea. Around midnight the sailors had the feeling that they were approaching land.

²⁸They measured how deep the water was and found that it was 120 feet deep. A short time later they measured the water again, and this time it was 90 feet deep.

²⁹They were afraid we would crash against the rocks, so they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship. Then they prayed that daylight would come soon.

³⁰The sailors wanted to escape from the ship, so they let the lifeboat down into the sea. They were pretending that they were going to lower some anchors from the front of the ship.

³¹But Paul spoke to the commander and the soldiers. “These men must stay with the ship,” he said. “If they don’t, you can’t be saved.”

³²So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat, and they let it drift away.

³³Just before dawn Paul tried to get everyone to eat. “For the last 14 days,” he said, “you’ve wondered what would happen and you’ve gone without food. You haven’t eaten anything.

³⁴Now I’m asking you to eat something. You need it to live. None of you will lose a single hair from your head.”

³⁵After Paul said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.

³⁶All of them were filled with hope and they started to eat, too.

³⁷There were 276 of us on board.

³⁸After everyone had eaten as much as they wanted, they threw the rest of the grain into the sea to make the ship lighter.

³⁹When daylight came, they saw a bay with a sandy beach. They didn’t recognize the place, but they decided to try to run the ship onto the beach.

⁴⁰So they cut the anchors loose and left them in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that held the rudders. They lifted the sail at the front of the ship to the wind and headed for the beach.

⁴¹But the ship hit a sand bar, so the front of it got stuck and wouldn’t move. The back of the ship began to be broken into pieces by the pounding of the waves.

⁴²The soldiers were going to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming away and escaping.

⁴³But the commander wanted to save Paul’s life, so he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to throw themselves overboard first and swim to land.

⁴⁴The rest were told to get there by hanging onto boards or other pieces from the ship that were floating in the water. And that way everyone reached land safely.