John Gill Commentary Acts 27:18

"And as we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw the [the freight] overboard;" — Acts 27:18 (ASV)

And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest
Sometimes being lifted up as it were to the heavens, and then presently sinking down, as if they were going into the bottom of the sea; such a condition at sea is described to the life by the Psalmist, in (Psalms 107:25–27) .

the next day they lightened the ship ;
of its burden, its lading, the goods and merchandise that were in it; as the mariners did in the ship in which Jonah was, (Jonah 1:5) the Ethiopic version renders it, "they cast the goods into the sea"; the Arabic version, the "merchandise".