Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 27:30

"And as the sailors were seeking to flee out of the ship, and had lowered the boat into the sea, under color as though they would lay out anchors from the foreship," — Acts 27:30 (ASV)

And as the shipmen were about to flee...—The hour of danger called out the natural instinct of self-preservation, to the exclusion of better feelings. It was easy for the sailors to urge that the ship needed anchors at the bow as well as at the stern, and, while pretending to be occupied with this, to lower the boat which they had before hoisted on deck (Acts 27:16), and so effect their escape. The boat, it might appear, was necessary for their alleged purpose, as their ostensible aim was not merely to cast anchors from the bow, but to carry them out (as the word which St. Luke uses implies) to the full extent of the cable’s length.