sinking ship

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sinking ship (plural sinking ships)

1. (idiomatic) Something which is doomed; an impending debacle; an ongoing disaster.
   • 1910, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 2, in When a Man Marries:

     He said that […] Bella had been perfectly right to leave him, because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out penniless into the world.

   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, authorized British edition, London: Martin Secker […], published February 1932 (May 1932 printing), →OCLC:

     My word, won't it be funny when there's no Tevershall pit working. […] And now the men say it's a sinking ship, and it's time they all got out.

   • 2012 May 30, Haitham Maleh, “Opinion: A Peace Plan in Name Only”, in New York Times, retrieved 1 August 2012:

     [T]he only future for Syria is without the Assad political dynasty. […] The government is a sinking ship.

   Synonym: lost cause

• like rats from a sinking ship