disloyal people who desert a failing enterprise before its too late.
From Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms by Marvin Terban
I think "rats" is likely to mean "coward" who run away when they have a problem. If some one, or some people run when difficulties arise, or when things get bad, they are compared to rats deserting a sinking ship. The rats only care for their own safety, and will not stay to help prevent the ship from sinking or to help others
You probably are thinking of the word "scuttling" here. To scuttle a ship is to open holes in the hull and let in the water. It means to sink your own ship on purpose.
to get something off your chest means to get it done.
it means to steal or to copy off it means to steal or to copy off
Tentative means to be unsure or uncertain about something.
That means literally jumping off a ship.
rats "Rats deserting a sinking ship" is a cliche.
Bilge rats
What exactly are you asking? Why would you want to rewrite it?Are you asking what the saying means?
The three attendants' safety is threatened because the ship is teeming with ravenous rats.
definetely rats can swim how else could they leave a sinking ship
Yes. In fact, When the Black Plague was unleashed into Europe, the rats, most times, would only choose humans as their victims only after they had infected and killed off most of the rats nearby, on a ship, etc.
The black death was transmitted by fleas carried on rats. Conditions on ships were unhygienic during these times and so rats lived on ships to get scrap food. When a ship docked, some rats ran off the ship, carrying the infected fleas with them. the fleas then bit humans and the disease spread.
The act of disembarking.
Rats desert a sinking ship.
In the story "Three Skeleton Key," the rats were brought to the island by a ship that wrecked near the island's lighthouse. The ship was carrying a cargo of rats which escaped and found their way onto the island, leading to a terrifying invasion.
To leave something or someone when things get bad, they do not stick around to help.