Die a bit of a hero in a shipwreck (6)
I believe the answer is:
perish
'die' is the definition.
(I know that die can be written as perish)
'a bit of a hero in a shipwreck' is the wordplay.
'a bit of a hero' becomes 'er' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a shipwreck' becomes 'pish' (anagram of 'ship').
'er' inserted into 'pish' is 'PERISH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for perish that I've seen before include "fall" , "Shuffle off this mortal coil" , "Lose one's life" , "Rot or suffer untimely death" , "Deteriorate, rot" .)