We took him aboard may be rendered in some languages as “he joined us on the ship” or “he came onto the ship where we were.”
Mitylene was the main town of the island of Lesbos.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .