3. Steerinr/ Apptiratus. — Some commenta- tors have fallen into strange perplexities from observing that in Acts xxvii, 40 (rdc ^h'kti]- piac ri'iv nrfCaXiiov, "the fastenings of (lie rudders") Luke uses m]C(i\iov in the plural. One even suggests that the ship has one rud- der fastened at the bow and another fastened at the stern. We may say of him, as a modern
Coiu of Autoninns Pius, showing Anchor.
SHIP
697
SHIP
Ancient Anchors.
Test,, one in a very impressive metaphor concerning Christian hope (Heb. vi, 19). A saying of Socrates, quoted here by Kypke (^ovre vnvv e^ h'oQ dyKvpiov ovre (iiov «k fiidg eXTriSog opf^iicraaSrai). may serve to carry our thoughts to the other passage, which is part of the literal narrative of Paul's voyage at its most critical point. The ship in which he was sailing had four anchors on board, and these were all employed in the night, when the danger of falling on breakers was Imminent. The sailors on this occasion anchored by the stern (Ik ■Kpvfj.urjg pixl/avTEQ djKvpaQ Tiaaapac, Acts xxvii, 29). In this there is nothing remarkable, if there has been time for due preparation. English ships of war anchored by the stern at Copenhagen and Algiers. It is clear, too, that this was the right course for the sailors with whom Paul was concerned, for their plan was to run the ship aground at daybreak. The onlj' motives for surprise are that they should have been able so to anchor without preparation in a gale of wind, and that the anchors should have held on such a night. The answer to the first question thus sug- gested is that ancient ships, like their modern suc- cessors, the small craft among the Greek islands, were in the habit of anchoring by the stern, and therefore prepared for doing so. We have a proof of this in one of the paintings of Herculaneum, which illustrates an- other point already mentioned, viz. the necessity of tric- ing up the movable rudders in case of anchoring by the stern (see Acts xxvii. 40). The other question, which we have supposed to arise, relates rather to the holding- ground than to the mode of anchoring: and it is very interesting here to quote what an English sailing-book says of Paul's Bay in Malta: "While the cables hold, there is no danger, as the anchors will never start" (Purdy, Sailing Directions, p. 180).
5, Lfndergirders. — The imperfection of the build, and still more (see above, 2) the peculiarity of the rig, in ancient ships resulted in a greater tendency than in our times to the starting of the planks, and consequent- ly to leaking and foundering. We see this taking place alike in the voyages of .Jonah, Paul, and Josephus ; and the loss of the fleet of ^neas in Virgil (" laxis laterum compagibus omnes," ^-En. i, 122) may be adduced in il- lustration. Hence it was customary to take on board peculiar contrivances, suitably called " helps" ( jior)- hiiaig, Acts xxvii, 17), as precautions against such dan- gers. These were simply cables or chains, which in case of necessity could be passed around the frame of the ship, at right angles to its length, and made tight. The process is in the English navy called /rapping, and
many instances could be given where it has been found necessary in modern experience. Ptolemy's great ship, in Athenaeus (loc. cit.), carried twelve of these under- girders {vTToZiofiaTo). Various allusions to the prac- tice are to be found in the ordinary- classical writers. See, for instance, Thucyd. i, 29; Plato, Rep. x, 3, 616; Horace, Od. i, 14, 6. But it is most to our purpose to re- fer to the inscriptions containing a complete inventory of the Athenian navy, as published by Biickh {Urkun- den liber das Seewesen des attischen Staates [Berl. 1840]). The editor, however, is quite mistaken in supposing (p. 133-138) that these undergirders were passed around the body of the ship from stem to stem.
6. Ship's Boat. — This is perhaps the best place for noticing separately the crKaft], which appears promi- nently in the narrative of the voyage (Acts xxvii, 16, 32). Everj' large merchant-ship must have had one or more boats. It is evident that the Alexandrian corn-ship in which Paul was sailing from Fair Havens, and in which the sailors, apprehending no danger, hoped to reach Phcenice, had her boat towing behind. When the gale came, one of their first desires must have been to take the boat on board, and this was done under the lee of Clauda, when the ship was undergirded, and brought round to the wind for the purpose of lying- to ; but it was done with difficulty, and it would seem that the passengers gave assistance in the task (iioXig (C7xi'(7«jU£j' TrepttcpaTdg ysi'sa^ai Ttjg aKcKpiig, ver. 16). The sea by this time must have been furiously rough, and the boat must have been tilled with water. It is with this very boat that one of the most lively pas- sages of the whole narrative is connected. When the ship was at anchor in the night before she was run aground, the sailors lowered the boat from the davits with the selfish desire of escaping, on which Paul spoke to the soldiers, and they cut the ropes (rd oxoivia) and the boat fell off (ver. 30-32).