Jonah 1:11
Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
The violence of the storm drove those aboard to search out the reason for the peril threatening them. Their inquiry to Jonah came only after they had found out that he was running away from the Lord. Even then the sea kept working and growing more tempestuous, and it was because that raging continued that they pressed him for an answer.
They turned directly to Jonah himself to learn what ought to be done to him in order that the sea might grow calm on their behalf. In reply he told them to lift him up and hurl him into the sea, assuring them that the sea would then become calm. Once he was cast in, the sea stopped its raging.