Shipwreck, as seen by a survivor, is the figure of an initial philosophical experience.

The metaphor is a translation of a translation.

In the reception histories of metaphors, the more sharply defined and differentiated the imaginative stock becomes, the sooner the point is reached where there seems to be an extreme inducement to veer around, with the existing model, in the most decisive way and to try out the unsurpassable procedure of reversing it.

The weakness of the metaphor when built up into a full comparison is clearly that it encourages arguments against leaving the comfortable ship.