Acts 27:41 describes the moment Paul's ship runs aground on Malta: 'they struck a reef and the ship (ναῦς) was broken apart by the violence of the waves.' Though the more common New Testament term for ship is πλοῖον, Luke uses the classical poetic word ναῦς here, perhaps for stylistic variation or to evoke epic seafaring literature. In Homer and classical texts, ναῦς often appears in descriptions of naval warfare and heroic voyages. The Attic declension of the word is notoriously irregular, a fact that survives in Luke's single use of the accusative form.