Meaning:
To occupy yourself with some trivial activity while ignoring something much
more important.
Background:
This is sometimes shortened to just `rearranging the deckchairs'. clearly
refers to the sinking of the great ship in 1912.
There's no evidence to suggest that anyone did waste their time in
rearranging the Titanic's deckchairs while it was sinking - the expression is
purely metaphorical. The ship's band however, who all eventually drowned, did
continue to play on in an effort to calm the passengers.
Some deckchairs were thrown overboard to act as floatation aids for
passengers already in the sea. While a noble gesture this had little effect
as the icy water was quickly fatal.
As to the expression `rearranging the deckchairs...' it isn't contemporary
with the ship's sinking. The earliest example that I can find of it in print
is from the Canadian newspaper The Times Colonist, December 1972:
"Best quip of the year was the remark about Trudeau's cabinet shuffle -
`like rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic'."
...
It's a rather sad irony that the deckchairs, useless at the time, are now
highly prized and, a hundred years after the tragedy, a single chair
recovered from the sea was sold for £100,000.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three brothers grew up under the same roof, never saw eye to eye on anything,
and went on to pursue diverse careers. None felt fulfilled toward midlife and a
spring day in 1912 found them all aboard the hitherto largest ocean liner heading
to a new promised land. On that fateful night after the ship banked into an
iceberg, amid fear and trembling, the youngest knelt down to pray, not that God
would deliver him from death but from paralyzing fear. The second held his post
at the grand piano in the ship's band, ferociously belting out Beethoven No. 5:
da da da dum. The oldest came last on deck, took a deep breath, and calmly
started to rearrange the chairs as he knew these were going to be valuable.
