The dream occurred a few weeks before a breakdown centering on the dreamer’s wife leaving him. ‘I am in a large glass boat with my wife.
The sea is very rough and I am afraid the boat will sink’ (Ron D).
Many boat/ship dreams depict something else: a situation we are involved in with other people which is difficult to get out of, such as marriage, business partnership, armed forces. Keel: basic personal strengths. Bows: one’s strength to meet life’s changes. Rudder: sureness about direction in life.
The ship sinking : fear of relationship ending—could be children leaving mother, so the collective ‘boat journey’ has finished; illness; death. Leaving boat but leaving bag on it: lack of identity, alone—perhaps when children have gone or job ended. Lots of small boats: other people’s relationships. Small boat with one other person: one’s relationship with that person. Going on a cruise: desiring relationship with others, or to be a pan of other people’s lives. Boat journey by night: classic archetype of searching for one’s roots in life; the journey into the unconscious. Anchored boat: security; stable relationship; opposite of drifting. Motorboat: similar to car, but more sense of isolation or aloneness. Ferryboat: if across a river, death, end of a relationship; transition from one phase of life to another. Disembarking: leaving a phase of life, such as motherhood or marriage. Embarking alone: independence or loneliness. Idioms: burn one’s boats; in the same boat; miss the boat; rock the boat; ships that pass in the night; ship comes in; a tight ship.
1- To dream about a boat or a ship very often indicates how we cope with our own emotions and those of others. It may well represent how we navigate our way through life and whether we arc in control of our lives.
2- To dream of being alone in a small boat means we need to consider how we handle isolation and the ability to be alone.
To dream of being on a large ship alerts us to how we handle group relationships.
To dream of missing a boat is often the dream of a perfectionist who fears missing chances or opportunities.
3- Boats represent our attitude to death and ‘The Final Journey’. They can also represent fertility and adventure. [2]
A sailboat is also a means of transport and, as such, should be considered as another form of symbolizing spiritual progression. It would be of a lighter, almost dilettante form.
A steamship, another method of transportation, would be a slow but steady form.
A lifeboat is not transportation per se. so it may symbolize a need to escape; trying to get out of a difficult situation.
See also: individual boat types [3]