New Revised Standard Version
But when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, on the pretext of putting out anchors from the bow,

Contemporary English Version
The sailors wanted to escape from the ship. So they lowered the lifeboat into the water, pretending that they were letting down some anchors from the front of the ship.

New American Bible
The sailors then tried to abandon ship; they lowered the dinghy to the sea on the pretext of going to lay out anchors from the bow.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But as the shipmen sought to fly out of the ship, having let down the boat into the sea, under colour, as though they would have cast anchors out of the forepart of the ship,

But as the shipmen sought to fly out of the ship, having let down the boat into the sea, under colour, as though they would have cast anchors out of the forepart of the ship,

the boat.

Acts 27:16,32 And running under a certain island that is called Cauda, we had much work to come by the boat. . . .

foreship.

Acts 27:41 And when we were fallen into a place where two seas met, they run the ship aground. And the forepart indeed, sticking fast, remained unmoveable: but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the sea.