31. But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.”
32. So the soldiers cut the ropes of the dinghy and set it adrift.
33. Until the day began to dawn, Paul kept urging all to take some food. He said, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting, going hungry and eating nothing.
34. I urge you, therefore, to take some food; it will help you survive. Not a hair of the head of anyone of you will be lost.”
35. When he said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat.
36. They were all encouraged, and took some food themselves.
37. In all, there were two hundred seventy-six of us on the ship.
38. After they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
39. When day came they did not recognize the land, but made out a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore on it, if they could.
40. So they cast off the anchors and abandoned them to the sea, and at the same time they unfastened the lines of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail into the wind, they made for the beach.
41. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow was wedged in and could not be moved, but the stern began to break up under the pounding [of the waves].
42. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape,
43. but the centurion wanted to save Paul and so kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to the shore,
44. and then the rest, some on planks, others on debris from the ship. In this way, all reached shore safely.