S. J. Knight

Thank you for these comments, sorry for the slow response. It's taken me all this time to figure out how to find my original question on this site and I was about to give up. I'm also unsure how to reply to particular answers separately. The fact of the boat usually being towed, is a given, but How it was hauled up during a dangerous storm to save it from sinking, and Where was it stowed was my problem.. Particular thanks to Cristiano, for that excellent picture, which is very helpful indeed, especially as it matches my own imagining of where the boat might have been stowed.! Since posting, I have found on line a very old book quoting a fragment of translated text of a work written ?? years BC which spoke of sliding down ropes, 'trusting to Fortune' and past the steering rudder to get into a towed boat. This was absolute gold, supporting my assumption that bailing would be vital to reduce weight and that sliding down to it was not an implausible figment of my imagination. As has been noted, there is very little info about the 'how' of hauling it up. Since a Roman grain ship (Corbita class, I think) had only one main mast there's only the one yard arm for a block and tackle hoist, which means figuring out how to drag it up from only the one point. I'm thinking that since I have sailors already bailing below, they might have ropes thrown down to them to attach either to tethering rings along one side (sorry I'm a dunce at correct terms) or possibly passed under the thwarts. The boat can then, when emptied, and the men pulled up (we hope!) by hauled up by one side, using the block and tackle. Either using all the ropes tied together, or pulling up the central rope by the mechanical means and the other side ropes using sheer manpower. This would accord with the Acts 27 record (about which I am writing) states that getting the ship's boat up on deck was ' much work' /very difficult. I'm also wondering whether the deep roll of the mother ship's hull (in the heavy swell) might even serve as a support to some extent as it tilts towards the other side and they drag the smaller boat over it in time with the swell to get the best advantage of the leverage. So now I get to how on earth did they safely get it over the edge of the deck without wrecking something. My only solution to this is guessing that they used spare spars stored against the bulwarks, as rollers. A perilous undertaking in a heavy swell, oh dear. Men might have been stationed to ensure they didn't roll out of control or overboard? Next: Pulling the boat up by the bow would mean a long stretch of clear deck needed to swing it around and store longditudinally in the waist as per Cristiano's picture. To me that seems the logical place to store a boat or it would be a constant hindrance if chocked transversely. So it would have to require removing enough bulwark to take the boat's length. I think they had removable bulwarks rather like barred gates in the waist of the ship for loading purposes - just going on some of the old pictures, mosaics, etc. If I have not exhausted your patience, please let me know your thoughts? Thank you so much, and I hope I can find how to get back to this page again this time. I'll bookmark i just in case. .

I'm a historical fiction writer presently dealing with an incident described in Acts 27:16,17, where during cyclonic conditions, an Alexandrian grain ship has to haul its towed (semi-swamped) longboat up onto the deck - described by the writer as being 'very difficult'. I have very little nautical knowledge, and am struggling to visualise how this might have been done in the absence of davits and, how and where it could have been secured on deck. Later in the record the sailors attempted to relaunched it to save themselves but the Centurion in charge cut the ropes and it 'dropped into the sea'. So that indicates to me that hauling a boat on deck, and re-launching it from , was not unusual. But how on earth did they manage it? I have trawled the internet to find any helpful ideas, and your model ship world is the only place I've found which even mentions it. If anyone can suggest answers, from their own knowledge/experience, I would be so grateful. Thank you.