The idiomlike rats fleeing a sinking ship, used in reference to people abandoning an enterprise once it seems likely to fail, has shown great linguistic tenacity, having been in regular use for over four hundred years. However, the wording and form of this standby has changed quite a bit ov...
their ship was doomed. Then the cry went up: “Lower the lifeboats!” We still say that people fleeing danger in panic are “like rats leaving a sinking ship.” Even when a ship was moored at dockside, sailors kept an eye on rats. If they noticed rats leaving their ship, crewmen wou...