A Dutch correspondent has pointed out to me (E Argyle) that the beautifully coloured pair of Italian stamps issued in June 1961 represent St. Paul's visit to Rome and therefore the name of the ship is the Dioscuri, a Roman packet vessel. These vessels were obviously poor seagoing ships. St. Paul does not appear to have been a regular passenger on the Roman ships, yet he was shipwrecked four times. The stamp does not show an accurate representation of the Dioscuri, which was not a small type of corn ship or packet vessel, for she could carry 276 passengers.
The ship on the stamp looks tightly packed with a dozen passengers, but this is due to the custom of painters, from early days to medieval times, of showing fairly accurate outlines of the ships and making the passengers in them look like giants. -The stamp illustration is a reproduction of a miniature in the Bible of Borso D'Este. An interesting feature is the design of the anchor. St. Paul's voyage to Rome is described in detail in the Acts of the Apostles, which mentions the boat on a davit, anchors and rigging. He left Phoenicia about September 10 and only arrived in Rome in February after being shipwrecked at Malta and finishing the journey from Malta to Rome in the Dioscuri, The stamp of course only shows an early artist's impression of the ship.