What can be said of the ship that was wrecked at Malta with Paul on board? It was a grain ship, “a boat from Alexandria that was sailing for Italy.” (Acts 27:6, footnote) The grain fleets were privately owned by Greeks, Phoenicians, and Syrians, who commanded and equipped them. However, the ships were hired by the State. “As in the collection of taxes,” says historian William M. Ramsay, “the government found it easier to give out the work to contract than to organize for itself the enormous machinery in men and equipment needed for that great service.”

Paul completed his voyage to Rome on a vessel with the figurehead “Sons of Zeus.” This too was an Alexandrian ship. It docked at Puteoli in the Gulf of Naples, the port where the grain fleets normally landed. (Acts 28:11-13)

The vessel on which Paul experienced shipwreck at Malta would also have been considered large. How big could such ships be?

Literary sources led one scholar to say: “The smallest capacity [ship] found generally useful by the ancients was about 70 to 80 tons. A very popular size, at least in the Hellenistic age, was 130 tons. A 250-tonner, although a common sight, was definitely larger than average. In Roman times the ships used in the imperial transport service were still greater, the desirable capacity being 340 tons. The largest ships afloat ran to 1300 tons, possibly a bit larger.” According to a description penned in the second century C.E., the Alexandrian grain carrier Isis was over 180 feet [55 m] long, was about 45 feet [14 m] wide, had a hold some 44 feet [13 m] deep, and could probably carry over a thousand tons of grain and perhaps a few hundred passengers.