Ships were modelled as moving pressure disturbances on the free surface of a shallow water basin in the present paper. The moving pressure generating waves were subjected to the reflection of land boundaries and the radiation of open boundaries. This paper proposed and examined a wave equation model (WEM) to solve the shallow water equations with moving surface pressures simulating ship waves in a bounded shallow water region. The Galerkin finite element method was used to solve a second order wave equation for the free surface elevations and the hydrodynamic pressure of the ship bottom simultaneously. Horizontal velocities were obtained from the momentum equations. Numerical solutions of Series 60 C B=0.6 ships moving with the depth Froude number of F h= 0.6, 1.0, 1.3 in a rectangular shallow water harbor were investigated. Three dimensional surface elevation profiles and the depth averaged horizontal velocities were analysed. The numerical results characterised very well the ship waves in shallow water. Strong boundary reflection waves were found in the case of high depth Froude number (F h=1.3). Waves generated by the interactions of two ships moving in the same directions and in the opposite directions were also numerically investigated in the present study. Ships were modelled as moving pressure disturbances on the free surface of a shallow water basin in the present paper. The moving pressure generating waves were subjected to the reflection of land boundaries and the radiation of open boundaries. This paper proposed and examined a wave equation model (WEM) to solve the shallow water equations with moving surface pressures simulating ship waves in a bounded shallow water region. The Galerkin finite element method was used to solve a second order wave equation for the free surface elevations and the hydrodynamic pressure of the ship bottom Numerical solutions of Series 60 CB = 0.6 ships moving with the depth Froude number of F h = 0.6, 1.0, 1.3 in a rectangular shallow water harbor were investigated. Three dimensional surface elevation profiles and the depth averaged horizontal velocities were analysed. The numerical results characterized very well the ship waves in shallow water. Strong boundary reflection waves were found in the case of high depth Froude number  (F h = 1.3) . Waves generated by the interactions of two ships moving in the same directions and in the opposite directions were also numerically investigated in the present study.