The Romans started to take Paul to Caesar, their biggest boss

1Later on, Festus, the government boss over that country, reckoned it was time for Paul to go to Rome, in Italy country. So he took Paul and some other prisoners to Julius. Julius was the boss over a mob of soldiers that were called the Augustus Mob. Festus told him, “Take all these prisoners to Rome.” And they let me, Luke, go with them.

2So we got on a ship that came from a town called Adramitium. It was going to sail to some of the towns along the coast of Asia country. Another one of Paul’s friends came with us too. His name was Aristarkus. His home town was Thessalonica, in Macedonia country. We all started sailing on that ship, and

3the next day, we stopped at the town called Sidon. Julius was good to Paul, and he let him go and see his friends there, so they could give him anything he needed. Then Paul came back to the ship.

4After that, the ship left Sidon, but the wind was blowing against us, so the ship went along the north side of Cyprus Island, to get away from the wind.

5Then we crossed over the sea close to the coast of Cilicia country and Pamfilia country, and we got to a town called Myra, in Lisia country. Then we got off the ship there and looked for another ship to take us to Rome, in Italy country.

6In Myra, people told Julius, “There is another ship here that came from the town called Alexandria, and it is going to sail to Italy country.” So Julius took us to that other ship, and we got on it, and we left Myra.

7We sailed slowly for a few days, and then we went close to the coast of Asia country, near a town called Kenidus. After that, the wind got very strong. It didn’t let the ship sail straight ahead towards the west, so we sailed towards the south. We sailed along the south side of Crete Island to get away from the wind. We went past Cape Salmone.

8The wind was still strong, so the ship couldn’t sail properly, and we went slowly along the coast of Crete Island until we got to a place called Fair Havens Harbour, near a town called Lasia.

Paul told the ship’s men to wait, but they kept going

9It took us a long time to get to Fair Havens Harbour. It was already October, and the bad weather was coming soon. If we kept going, we might get big trouble from storms. So Paul talked to the men that looked after the ship. He said,

10“Listen, men, I reckon that if we keep going, we will get big trouble. I reckon a storm will wreck this ship, and you will lose everything in it, and we might drown too.”

11But the boss soldier didn’t listen to Paul. He listened to the boss of the ship-men and the owner of the ship.

12That place, Fair Havens Harbour, was not a good place to stay in the cold weather time, so most of the men on the ship reckoned we had to leave there and go on a bit further, to a town called Phoenix, and stay there for the cold weather time. The harbour at Phoenix was all right. It was open to the sea in the west, but the strong winds didn’t blow from the west in the cold weather time.

13We waited at Fair Havens Harbour until the strong wind stopped. Then a little wind started to blow from the south, and the ship-men thought that they could sail the ship to Phoenix, so they lifted the anchor, and sailed west along the southern shore of Crete Island.

14But after a little while, the wind changed, and a big strong wind blew across the island from the north side, and it pushed the ship to the south, away from the land. (That wind was called the Northeaster.)

15The ship-men couldn’t steer the ship the right way. The wind kept on blowing it the wrong way. So they just let the wind take the ship anywhere.

16The ship was towing a little boat behind it. The sea was very rough, so we wanted to put that little boat up on the deck of the ship, so that it would not get full of water. But the wind was too strong for us to do that. Then we went beside a little island called Cauda. That island blocked the wind, so it wasn’t as strong, and we lifted the little boat up out of the water and tied it on to the deck of the ship. There was still a lot of wind, so it was really hard work for us, but we did it.

17After that, the ship-men tied ropes around the middle of the ship to make it stronger, so the big waves would not break it. The wind was pushing the ship very fast, and the ship-men reckoned we might hit the sand-bars near Libya country, and get stuck there, so they got a big bag on a rope, and they threw it out behind the ship and let it drag in the water. This made the ship slow down a bit, but the wind kept on blowing it along.

18The strong wind and the big waves kept on throwing the ship about. It was very rough. The next day, the ship-men wanted to make the ship lighter, so they started to throw away the things that the ship was carrying.

19On the 3rd day of the storm, the ship-men even threw away a lot of the ship’s own things, like its sails, and poles.

20The wind kept on blowing really hard, and the sky was full of dark clouds all day and all night. We couldn’t see the sun or the stars for a long time, so we didn’t know where we were. And the wind and the waves kept on throwing us about, and after some time we thought we were going to drown in the sea.

Paul told everybody on the ship that they will not drown

21None of us on the ship wanted to eat any food. We didn’t eat anything for a long time. Then one day, Paul stood up in front of us and said, “Listen, men, you didn’t listen to me in Crete. I told you not to sail out of that little harbour, but you did. So now you are in trouble, and you lost all the things this ship was carrying.

22But listen. Don’t be frightened. I’m telling you that none of us will die. But the wind and the waves will wreck this ship.

23You see, I work for God, and last night he sent one of his angel messengers to me. He came and stood beside me,

24and he said, ‘Paul, don’t be frightened. You have to go and stand in front of Caesar, the big boss in Rome. And God will be good to all the other men that are with you on this ship too. None of them will die.’

25Listen friends, don’t be frightened. I believe that God will help us, just like that angel told me.

26But the ship will crash on to an island, and we will all go on to the land there.”

Paul stopped the ship-men from leaving the ship

27We were in that storm for 2 weeks. The wind was still blowing the ship across the water called the Adriatic Sea. Then, in the middle of the night, the ship-men thought the ship was getting close to land.

28So they got a rope with a stone on the end of it and dropped it into the water to find out how deep it was. That stone went down 37 metres into the water, so they knew the water was 37 metres deep. We went a little further, and then they threw the stone out again. This time it only went down 28 metres, so they knew the water was not as deep there.

29That’s how they knew for sure that the ship was getting close to land. Then they got frightened. They thought the ship might smash on to some rocks, so they threw down 4 anchors on ropes from the back of the ship, to stop the ship. They really wanted day-light to come, so they could see the land.

30The ship-men wanted to leave the ship and get in the little boat, so they lied to everyone. They said, “We are going to drop some anchors from the front of the ship.” Then they started to put the little boat down into the sea.

31But Paul said to the boss soldier, and to the other soldiers, “If these ship-men don’t stay on the ship, you will all drown.”

32So the soldiers cut the ropes of the little boat and let it fall down into the water, and the waves took it away.

Paul got them all to eat some food to stay alive

33Just before day-light came, Paul tried to get everyone to eat some food. He said, “For the past 14 days you were too worried, and you didn’t eat anything.

34So now I’m telling you, you’ve got to eat some food, so you will get stronger and stay alive. I know that none of you will drown.”

35After he said that, while everyone was looking at him, Paul picked up some bread and thanked God for it. Then he broke a bit off and started to eat it.

36Then the rest of us felt better, so we all ate some food.

37There were 276 of us on that ship altogether.

38Everyone ate as much as they wanted, then they threw all the bags of food out of the ship into the sea, and that made the ship a bit lighter.

The ship started to break up

39Then the day-light came, and we saw the land. The ship-men didn’t know that place, but they could see a bay with a beach, and they reckoned, “Maybe we can steer the ship on to that beach.”

40So they cut the anchor ropes and let the anchors stay in the sea, and at the same time, they untied the rudders, so they could steer the ship again. Then they put up the sail at the front of the ship, and then the wind started to blow the ship towards the land.

41But half-way there, it hit a sand-bar, not far from the beach. The front of the ship got stuck there, and it didn’t go any further. Then the big waves kept on hitting the back of the ship, and they started to break it up.

The boss soldier saved Paul

42The soldiers said to their boss, “Let’s kill all the prisoners so they can’t swim to the beach and run away.”

43But their boss wanted to save Paul, so he said, “No.” Then he told everybody, “If you can swim, jump into the water now, and swim to the land. You mob go first.”

44After they did that, the other people that couldn’t swim grabbed things that float, like bits of broken wood from the back of the ship, and they held on to those things in the water until the waves washed them to the beach. So we all got to that land. None of us drowned.