Alexandrian Ships

[Geoffrey]

In the Book of Acts, Chapter 27 a centurion by the name of Julius gains passage aboard an “Alexandrian Shipâ€

[Praefectusclassis]

Since this was probably a ship belonging to the Egyptian grain trade, we do have some idea of those freighters. Sizewise we're talking big (ca. 350 tons was the officially preferred size) with exceptions in the huge range (up to 2000 tons), while 12-1300 ton ships were not out of the ordinary.
Apart from the hierarchy, I'm not sure how big their crews were, but they seem to have been small. A big crew was not necessary either, since the rigging was so much simpler than on early modern vessels.
These ships could carry hundreds of passengers, up to 600 people are attested.

[Ron Andrea]

A site with interesting details is at: http://www2.rgzm.de/navis/Themes/Commer ... nglish.htm

A first century A. D. grain ship was recently discovered off Italy, but I can't know find articles on it.

Specific reference to the Pauline vesslel is at: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0006-0895(199003 )53%3A1%3C25%3ATSOSPH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

(I notice these links did not format correctly, you may have to enter them manually.)

[Geoffrey]

Verse 37 states that there were 276 people on board the ship, however I’m sure they were not all part of the crew. If a centurion were to be dispatched with the duty of escorting a high value prisoner to Rome, would he have taken his command with him as support? There is evidence in earlier verses of the chapter that suggests the presence of soldiers, and that they even had to stop the ships crew from abandoning their posts. Other clues to the ships size is that it had at least 4 anchors and a smaller boat assigned to it.

[M. Demetrius]

A big crew was not necessary either, since the rigging was so much simpler than on early modern vessels.

Oarsmen would have probably been the vast majority of the crew, don't you think?

[Praefectusclassis]

Oarsmen would have probably been the vast majority of the crew, don't you think?

Warships, absolutely, trading galleys, yes, Alexandrian grain freighters, nope. They were simple square rigged sailing ships.

[M. Demetrius]

Well, then, there must have been mostly passengers, then. If it had only a single sail, they shouldn't have needed more than a dozen or so for ship's duties, steersmen, riggers, etc.

The neat thing about the account in Acts is that nobody died in the shipwreck. Seems like that would be sort of rare. Most folks can't swim that well for long in a storm at sea. Glad they took Paul's advice.

[Geoffrey]

thanks for the input