SHIPWRECK
701
SHIPWRECK
the fifteen -fathom depth, and at such a distance as would allow of preparation for anchoring with four anchors from the stern, which must have recjuired some time. Now, about half an hour farther the depth was fifteen fathoms. Fearing lest they should fall upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern. This implies that there were rocks to leeward on which they were in danger of falling; but the fifteen-fathom depth is, as nearly as possible, a quarter of a mile from the shore, which is here girt with mural precipices, and on which the sea must have been breaking violently. Their only chance of safety was to anchor; but to do this in a gale on a lee shore not only requires time, but very tenacious holding-ground. Is there such ground here ? In the English Sailing Directions it is said (to repeat an important fact given under a previous article), " The harbor of St. Paul is open to easterly and north- east winds. It is, notwithstanding, safe for small ships, tlie ground generally being very good ; and while the cables hold there is no danger, as the anchors will never start." But why anchor from the stern ? " The anch- or is cast from the prow," it being much easier to ar- rest a ship's way by the bow than the stern. Ships constructed like those of the ancients were, of necessity, amply provided with anchors and cables. It seems, too, from the figure of the ship in the picture of The- seus deserting Ariadne, that they could anchor by the stern, as they had hawse-holes aft (a hawser is seen tow- ing astern ; it passes through the rudder-port, and with- in board it is seen coiled round an upright beam or capstan in front of the break of the poop-deck). The advantages of being anchored in this manner are that by cutting away the anchors, loosing the bands of the rudders, and hoisting the artemon (the foresail, not the mainsail), all of which could be done simultane- ously, the ship was immediately under command, and could be directed with precision to any part of the shore which offered a prospect of safety. But if ancn- ored in the usual mode, she might have taken " the wrong cast" or drifted on the rocks. The number of anchors let go show that nothing was neglected.
The shipmen, after taking a meal, lightened the ship, not only by pumping, but by throwing the wheat into the sea. When day broke, they knew not the land, but it had certain peculiarities: the shore was rocky, it be- ing, in fact, skirted with precipices. They then discov- ered a creek with a sandy beach (the Greek word, in a restricted sense, means this, in contradistinction to a
rocky coast). Into this creek they were minded to thrust the ship. They now cut their cables and left the anchors in the sea ; and, loosing the lashings of the rudder and hoisting the foresail, they made for the creek. On the west side of the bay there are two creeks. One of them, ]\Iestara Valley, has a shore. The other, though its sandy beach has been worn away by the action of the sea, was probably the scene of the wreck, for here " two seas meet." At the entrance of the bay, where the ship anchored, it could not have been suspected that at the bottom of it there was a communication with the sea outside. But such is the case. Salmone island, which separates the bay from the sea outside, is formed by a long, rocky ridge sepa- rated from the mainland by a channel of not more than a hundred yards in breadth. Near this channel they ran the ship ashore; the fore-part stuck fast, but the stern was dashed in pieces. A ship impelled by a gale into a creek such as that in St. Paul's Bay would strike a bottom of mud graduating into tenacious clay, into which the fore-part would fix itself and be held fast, while the stern would be exposed to the force of the waves. See Melita.
The correspondence in the direction and distance is no less striking. A modern merchant -ship can sail within six points. Taking the mean between these, we cannot be so much as a point wrong if we assume that an ancient ship would, under favorable circum- stances, make good her course about seven points from the wind. But there is another element which must be taken into account when we calculate the course of a ship in a storm — it is the lee-way, which in a modern ship, in a gale such as described in Acts xxvii, is about six points. Now, if we apply these elements to Luke's account of Paul's voyage, the result will be found to be very striking. The facts mentioned in the narra- tive are: (1.) The point of departure — Clauda. (2.) The direction of the wind — in the received text, Euroc- lydon, but since the discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus the reading of the Vulg., Euroaquilo, east- northeast (that is, a wind between eurus, east, and aquilo), must be considered established. (3.) The ship's course — sev- en points from the wind, which, with six points of lee- way added, must have been thirteen points to the west of east-northeast, or west by north, which is as nearly as possible the bearing of Malta. (4.) Distance ; this is inferred from the ship's rate of sailing and the time consumed.