4. THE STORM. (XXVII 1 3) AND WHEN A MODERATE SOUTHERLY BREEZE AROSE, SUPPOSING THAT THEY HAD GOT THEIR OPPORTUNITY,1 THEY WEIGHED AN- CHOR AND SAILED ALONG THE CRETAN COAST CLOSE IN. (14) BUT AFTER NO LONG TIME THERE STRUCK DOWN FROM THE ISLAND A TYPHONIC WIND, WHICH GOES BY THE NAME EURAQUILO. (15) AND WHEN THE SHIP WAS CAUGHT BY IT, AND COULD NOT FACE THE WIND, WE GAVE WAY AND LET THE SHIP DRIVE. (16) AND, WHEN WE RAN UNDER THE LEE OF A SMALL ISLAND, CAUDA BY NAME, WE WERE ABLE WITH DIFFI- CULTY TO HAUL IN THE BOAT. (17) AND HAVING SECURED IT, THEY ATTEMPTED TO EASE THE SHIP BY UNDERGIRDING IT ; AND BEING IN TERROR LEST THEY BE CAST ON "THE GREAT QUICKSANDS," THEY RE- DUCED SAIL, AND LET THE SHIP DRIFT IN THAT POSI- TION {viz., laid-to under storm-sails).
One morning, after the council, their chance came with a moderate south wind, which favoured their west- erly voyage. At this point the writer says that they
1 Literally, had got their purpose.
Sec. 4. The Storm. 327
went close inshore ; and this emphatic statement, after they had been on a coasting voyage for weeks, must in a careful writer have some special force. Cape Matala projected well out to the south about six miles west of Fair Havens, and it needed all their sailing power to clear it on a straight course. From Luke's emphasis we gather that it was for some time doubtful whether they could weather the point ; and in the bright late autumn morning we can imagine every one gathered on the deck, watching the wind, the coast and the cape ahead. If the wind went round a point towards the west, they would fail ; and the anxious hour has left its record in the single word of v. 13 (acraov), while the inability of some scribes or editors to imagine the scene has left its record in the alteration {daaaov).
After passing Cape Matala, they had before them a fair course with a favouring breeze across the broad opening of the Gulf of Messara. But before they had got halfway across the open bay,1 there came a sudden change, such as is characteristic of that sea, where " southerly winds almost invariably shift to a violent northerly wind". There struck down from the Cretan mountains, which towered above them to the height of over 7000 feet, a sudden eddying squall from about east- north-east. Every one who has any experience of sailing on lakes or bays overhung by mountains will appreciate the epithet "typhonic," which Luke uses. As a ship-captain recently said to me in relating an anecdote of his own ex- perience in the Cretan waters, " the wind comes down from those mountains fit to blow the ship out of the water ".
1 Seventeen miles irom shore to shore on their course, according to Smith.
328 The Voyage to Rome. Chap. XIV.
An ancient ship with one huge sail was exposed to extreme danger from such a blast ; the straining of the great sail on the single mast was more than the hull could bear; and the ship was exposed to a risk which modern vessels do not fear, foundering in the open sea. It appears that they were not able to slacken sail quickly; and, had the ship been kept up towards the wind, the strain would have shaken her to pieces. Even when they let the ship go, the leverage on her hull must have been tremendous, and would in a short time have sent her to the bottom. Paul, who had once already narrowly escaped from such a wreck, drifting on a spar or swimming for a night and a day (II Cor. XI 25), was justified in his advice at Fair Havens not to run the risk of coasting further in the dangerous season on a coast where such sudden squalls are a common feature. In this case the ship was saved by getting into calmer water under the shelter of an island, Cauda (now Gozzo), about twenty-three miles to leeward.