Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 27:28

"and they sounded, and found twenty fathoms; and after a little space, they sounded again, and found fifteen fathoms." — Acts 27:28 (ASV)

During the fourteenth night after leaving Crete, it was clear—probably from the running swell and the roar of surf—that they were near a shore. Soundings indicated shallower water. To keep the ship from being wrecked against the rocks of an unknown coast in the darkness, they dropped four anchors and waited for dawn. Luke tells us that they were in the Adriatic Sea (the name used in ancient times for all parts of the Mediterranean between Greece, Italy, and Africa).