Dropped a line with a weight tied to it is actually one word in Greek, a technical term used of measuring the depth of water under a ship.

One hundred and twenty feet is literally “twenty fathoms”; while ninety feet is literally “fifteen fathoms.” A fathom (equivalent to six feet) was a standard measurement of ocean depth. This measurement was calculated on the basis of the distance between one’s hands when the arms are stretched out full length. In a number of languages there is a local equivalent of this type of measurement; however, increasingly all such measurements are given in terms of meters (a meter is approximately one-half of a fathom). The depth would therefore be given in terms of first “forty meters” and later “thirty meters.”

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 .