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Historicity of St. Paul's Shipwreck

Acts 27:38[1]

"And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, casting the wheat into the sea."

Acts 28:11[1]

"And after three months, we sailed in a ship of Alexandria, that had wintered in the island, whose sign was the Castors."

I stumbled upon an interesting article in Wikipedia, "Cura annonae", which was "the logistics system which procured and distributed grain for the cities of Rome and, after its foundation, Constantinople"[2]. In the table of contents, there was an entry for "The voyage of Paul". Apparently St. Paul was in one of these grain ships during his journey to Rome to appeal to Caesar. To give context from the book of Acts:

Acts 25:7-12[1]

"Who being brought, the Jews stood about him, who were come down from Jerusalem, objecting many and grievous causes, which they could not prove;

"Paul making answer for himself: Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I offended in any thing. But Festus, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, answering Paul, said: Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of things before me? Then Paul said: I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no injury, as thou very well knowest. For if I have injured them, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things whereof they accuse me, no man may deliver me to them: I appeal to Caesar."

"Then Festus having conferred with the council, answered: Hast thou appealed to Caesar? To Caesar shalt thou go."

For the first leg of his trip, St Paul went from Caesarea, landed in Myra (Lystra in the Vulgate), and boarded another ship for the second leg of his trip, a ship en route from Alexandria to Italy (Acts 27:6). A ship that also happens to carry grain in its cargo (Acts 27:38), and has 276 passenger and crew members (Acts 27:37). A ship of that size and of that cargo could only be one of the many Alexandrian grain ships, which carried grain from Egypt to Italy, as part of the cura annonae program.[3]

One example of such a ship was Isis, to quote Lucian of Samosata[4]:

"I say, though, what a size that ship was! 180 feet long, the man said, and something over a quarter of that in width; and from deck to keel, the maximum depth, through the hold, 44 feet. And then the height of the mast, with its huge yard; and what a forestay it takes to hold it! And the lofty stern with its gradual curve, and its gilded beak, balanced at the other end by the long rising sweep of the prow, and the figures of her name-goddess, Isis, on either side....

The crew was like a small army. And they were saying she carried as much corn as would feed every soul in Attica for a year."

Another one is from Seneca (Letters to Lucilius 77.1.2)[5], where he gives reference to how these ships travelled:

"Subito nobis hodie Alexandrinae naves apparuerunt, quae praemitti solent et nuntiare secuturae classis adventum; tabellarias vocant. Gratus illarum Campaniae aspectus est; omnis in pilis Puteolorum turba consistit et ex ipso genere velorum Alexandrinas..."

"Suddenly there came into our view to-day the Alexandrian ships, I mean those which are usually sent ahead to announce the coming of the fleet; they are called mail-boats. The Campanians are glad to see them; all the rabble of Puteoli stand on the docks, and can recognize the Alexandrian boats..."

Seneca here also makes mention of the people of Puteoli standing on the docks to see the arrival of these ships, Puteoli was also the place where St. Paul landed on his way to Rome. (Acts 28:13-14)[7]

Casson, in his work "The Isis and her Voyage"[6], analyzes in detail the route of Isis in Lucian's work which we quoted before, but without getting into the details myself here, he concluded that the route of these Alexandrian grain ships were as such:

Alexandria -> Cyprus -> Asia Minor (Myra/Lystra) -> Crete (Acts 27:7) -> Malta (Location of Shipwreck, Acts 28:1) -> Syracuse (Acts 28:12)-> Straits of Messina (Rhegium/Reggio[8], Acts 28:13) -> Puteoli (Acts 28:13)

I recommend reading all the references I've cited here, especially [3] and [6], there are some very interesting details which would be too lengthy for me to go through here.

References

+JMJ+