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Of American-English origin, the phrase to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, and its variants, mean: to engage in pointless or futile activity in the face of disaster.
A variant of this phrase occurs, for example, in ‘Head of deckchairs on the Titanic’: Tory leadership hopefuls head to low-key conference, by Eleni Courea, political correspondent, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Friday 27th September 2024:
On Tuesday, from a conference stage in Birmingham, four candidates will make their pitches to lead the Conservative party. Their immediate challenge after the Tory rout this summer will be to reinvigorate a hugely demoralised set of MPs and members.
[…]
There is also growing frustration among party insiders who think the extended contest is self-indulgent and politically damaging. “It feels like four people are competing to be the head of deckchairs on the Titanic,” another Tory source said.
The phrase to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic refers to the RMS Titanic, the largest ship in the world when it was built, and supposedly unsinkable. The Titanic sank on Monday 15th April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg while on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, resulting in the deaths of 1,513 of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic and variants that I have found:
—Note: This phrase was apparently first used—and perhaps coined—by Elizabeth Carpenter (née Sutherland – 1920-2010), U.S. journalist, White House official, author, humorist, political activist and feminist leader:
1-: From an account of the farewell address delivered at the National Press Club, in Washington, District of Columbia, by Elizabeth Carpenter, press secretary and staff director for Claudia Alta ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson (née Taylor – 1912-2007), First Lady of the USA from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973), 36th President of the USA from 1963 to 1969—account by the U.S. journalist William J. Eaton (1930-2005), Washington correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, published in The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) of Friday 17th January 1969 [page 20, column 3]:
“All the new people want an office close to the President’s. You should see them scramble. It’s like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic.”
2-: From Perskie Says Cape Demo Ills Caused by Lack of Leadership, by Per-Otto Erichsen, published in the Atlantic City Press (Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA) of Thursday 27th March 1969 [page 31 [?], column 4]—in this text, “a recent remark” probably refers to the above-quoted passage from Elizabeth Carpenter’s address:
An exchange of diagnoses as to what is ailing Cape May County’s Democratic organization seems to have developed between Marvin D. Perskie and Harry J. Gibbons.
On Wednesday, Perskie […] said he heartily disagreed with Gibbons’ analysis and opinions on the situation.
[…]
[…] Perskie […] continued: “If there is apathy on our side, it is generated by a lack of leadership, the lack of an image of a strong opposition party that’s in business and intends to stay in business.”
In summing up, Perskie said: “You can’t expect people to climb aboard a leaky ship. To paraphrase a recent remark, the scrambling of persons to be candidates in the Democratic Party in Cape May County is like fighting for deck chairs on the Titanic on its last cruise.”
3-: From a review of The Establishment Needs Love, Too, a revue by Bob McCully, performed at Beck’s Patio Theater—review by Win Fanning, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sun-Telegraph (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) of Monday 23rd June 1969 [page 23, column 3]—KDKA is the name of a radio station and of a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
Speared by Mr. McCully’s sharp wit are such diverse subjects as the theater’s new nude look, computer dating, “Rosemary’s Baby,” transparent dresses, the income tax, geriatrics, KDKA, youth of America and oral contraceptives, among many others.
[…]
Rushing to take a job at KDKA, Mr. McCully notes, “is like racing for a deck chair on the Titanic.”
4-: From Football Talk In Hot Weather But The Talk Is Of Pretty Hot Stuff, by Kyle Griffin, published in The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee, USA) of Saturday 28th June 1969 [page 24, column 7]—Frank Broyles (1924-2017) was then the head football coach at the University of Arkansas:
Broyles has raised another heartbeat for Mid-South football fans. What do you say to a Tennessee-Arkansas game every other year in Memorial? Yeah, that’s what most folks say.
“We would like to play a series like this,” Broyles said. […]
“But it appears we have an unsolvable problem. Tennessee refuses to play anywhere except on a Knoxville home-and-home basis but won’t play us in Fayetteville. So I don’t think we can get together.”
[…]
Football scheduling is a thankless chore. It can be likened to fighting over a deck chair on the Titanic.
5-: From Nation Comes Second: Family Ties Rule Vietnam, by the U.S. journalist and science-fiction author Frank Herbert (1920-1986), published in the San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California, USA) of Tuesday 23rd September 1969 [page 10, column 1]:
Someone once said that playing politics in South Vietnam was like fighting for deck chairs on the Titanic.
There’s an unfortunate note of truth in this. South Vietnam is essentially an anarchy on a family base. Politics there operate in microcosms of power balance pitted against power balance—all on a family basis.
6-: From Toronto Roman Catholic theological colleges face a grim shortage of priesthood trainees, by Leslie Tarr, administrator of Central Baptist Seminary, published in the Toronto Daily Star (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Saturday 6th December 1969 [page 71, column 2]:
[The] flurry of ecumenical educational activity is under way. In September this year the four Roman Catholic schools (St. Francis Xavier, Regis, St. Basil’s and St. Augustine’s) joined with four Protestant seminaries (Knox, Emmanuel, Trinity and Wycliffe) to form the Toronto School of Theology.
Despite the heralded development, Catholic observers and some Protestants are wondering if this is not the rearguard action of denominations in trouble.
A noted Jesuit critic has likened such moves to “fighting for the last deck chair on the Titanic.”
7-: From a letter to the Editor that the Australian architect Neil Clerehan (1922-2017) wrote about St. Patrick’s College, Melbourne, published in The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Monday 12th January 1970 [page 7, column 3]:
To consider now replacing the original building of St. Patrick’s College (the fearsome additions to the rear and the brick fences should go tomorrow) with an office building of, to put it mildly, undistinguished architectural qualities, is a sad but not altogether unexpected action by the Catholic Church in Victoria.
[…]
[…] Judging from buildings commissioned by the Catholic Church, I would sadly and unoriginally liken the present moves to preserve St. Patrick’s College with the re-arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic.
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