In March 2023, the Aponte family gifted Pope Francis a faithful reconstruction of what could have been Peter’s boat. Since June of this year, it has been displayed at the entrance of the Vatican Museums as a symbol of our Church, an image used by the first Christians and some of the Church Fathers.
At the end of December 1985, brothers Yuval and Moshe Lufan providentially found the remains of an ancient boat buried in the Sea of Galilee while searching for ancient coins in an area temporarily without water. After three years without rain, the shores of the lake had receded drastically, and while digging in the ground, they came across the bow of a wreck just a few centimeters below the surface. At that moment, it began to rain, and a dual rainbow appeared in the sky. They understood that this rain was God’s answer to their persistent prayers, accompanied by this gift.
After informing the Israel Antiquities Authority, it was confirmed to be a wreck from the first half of the first century. With great effort, this boat was extracted, transported, and preserved in the Yigal Allon Museum in Ginosar, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where it can be seen today. Whether this boat belonged to Peter or not won’t ever be proven, but we do know that it is from that place and that period in history. The boat matches the descriptions from ancient writings and a mosaic from that era, found during excavations in Magdala.
An exhaustive study done with the collaboration of world-class experts, determined its dimensions, the woods used in its construction, the techniques used, and the design of the boat, as well as the age of the woods and the period of construction. All data confirmed an exceptional discovery: it was very likely a boat similar to the one belonging to Peter, on which Jesus Christ often preached, fished, sailed, rested, and performed miracles.
Peter´s boat
Between 2019 and 2022, after extensive documentation work and collaboration with Israel through the Italian International Diplomatic Institute, the boat was built at the Antico Cantiere di Legno Aprea in Torre Annunziata (Naples) following the techniques and using the materials from the time of Jesus. The construction used oak wood for the keel, frames, ribs, strakes, beams, stem, and sternpost, and cedar wood for the boat’s planking, the same types of wood used for the boat found in the lake. Olive wood was also used for some components of the boat’s rigging.
Peter´s boat
The boat has the following dimensions: 8.80 meters in length, 2.50 meters in beam, and 1.20 meters in depth. It weighs 2000 kg and can carry about 12 people. For propulsion, it has four oars and a 25-square-meter square sail, supported by an 8-meter-high mast. As rudders, it has two oars at the stern. The ropes and the sail were woven from hemp, as in ancient times. The square sail and its parts were entirely hand-sewn. For the design of the sail and the deck, which were not preserved in the wreck, bas-reliefs and mosaics from the period were used as models. The stone anchor is a reproduction of an archaeological relic found in the lake. The boat was launched into the sea and was found to be manageable and fast despite its considerable weight.
Just as the Lufan brothers experienced when they prayed incessantly for rain, whenever we pray, God grants us unexpected graces. We realize that we depend entirely on God—without Him, we can do nothing, as Saint Josemaría used to say. In addition to the much-needed rain, they found Peter’s boat, and a rainbow appeared.
Father Alfonso Sánchez de Lamadrid Rey, priest.
The book detailing the construction and launch of the boat is available in Italian via this website: https://www.anticocantieredellegnoaprea.it/la-barca-di-pietro.
Peter´s boat , test on water