Main-sail
Main-sail
is the rendering in the Auth. Version of the nautical term (from caprew, to suspend or hoist), which occurs only in this sense in Act 27:40. It is explained by some critics, the largest sail of the poop, answering to our mizzen-sail, and even yet called by the Venetians artinmone. Some regard it as the top-sail, Lat. supparum. Others understand by it a small sail or jib near the prow, called by the Romans the dolon. The term may thus be understood to signify properly the fore- sail, which, in the opinion of those qualified to judge, would be most useful in bringing a ship to head to the wind under the circumstances narrated by Luke (see Hackett’s Comment. ad loc.). The vessels of that time had one, two, or three masts; the largest was in the stern (Smith’s Dict. of Ant. s.v. Malus). Hence, if Paul’s ship had but one, the sail in question would have been that now called thejib, being fastened to a boom or spar projecting from the bowsprit; but if, as is more probable from its size, it had at least two masts, this sail would be the one attached to the front mast, that is, the fore-sail. A sailor will at once see that the fore-sail was the best possible sail that could be set under the circumstances (Smith, Shipwreck of St. Paul, 3d edit. p. 139, note). SEE SHIP.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Main-sail
(Gr. artemon), answering to the modern “mizzen-sail,” as some suppose. Others understand the “jib,” near the prow, or the “fore-sail,” as likely to be most useful in bringing a ship’s head to the wind in the circumstances described (Acts 27:40).