If you were not driving, the dream may be urging you to take control of your life; if you were driving, the dream is urging you to alter your course or change your plans in waking life to avert disaster.
If you dreamed that you were in a ship and the water was coming overboard and submerging you, the traditional association of water with emotion suggests that you are being overwhelmed by emotion.
If this is the case, the dream is urging you to try a more logical and rational approach to your problems.
If you were attempting to save other people in your shipwreck, think about what, or who, they may represent in waking life.
If it was a child, it may represent a part of yourself you are trying to develop that might act as a counterbalance to your powerful emotions. Dreams about a shipwreck can be associated with your life course, or work life. The dream is suggesting that something going on in your present life experience may be making you feel isolated, abandoned, or on the verge of some kind of a catastrophe or tragedy.
Those who have this kind of dream are often going through a transitional period in their lives, such as a graduation or engagement. The ship therefore represents your goal, but the journey has become out of control and the horror of being dragged down by the ship captures a sense of the horror of being dragged down by traditions and expectations. This kind of dream isn’t a prediction of failure in your relationship or career; it simply indicates that details surrounding it are threatening to obscure the happiness and satisfaction you are hoping for.
See also: ACCIDENTS, ACTION AND ADVENTURES. [1]