After hoisting the skiff [on board], they used support lines [for frapping] to undergird and brace the ship’s hull; and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis [off the north coast of Africa], they let down the sea anchor and lowered the sails and were driven along [backwards with the bow into the wind].

The fourteenth night had come and we were drifting and being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors began to suspect that they were approaching some land.