Wiktionary lists sinking ship as an idiom: something doomed, a debacle on its way. Unicode’s ships are all afloat, so the sinking ship emoji here is a pair, Ship then Water wave.
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What is filed under ship, underwater and iceberg
CLDR, Unicode’s search word list, files ship under four emoji: Ship, Passenger ship, Anchor and Trident emblem. Underwater leads to one, Bubbles, so 🚢🫧 is the ship already gone. Ice is the only emoji under iceberg.
SOS stood for nothing
By Wikipedia SOS was agreed in 1906 as a Morse code distress signal: three dots, three dashes, three dots. It was not an abbreviation, and save our ship was fitted to it later. Typed, it is ... --- ...
𝍅 is the one character Unicode names for sinking: Tetragram for sinking. It may show as an empty box.
Questions and answers
Is there a sinking ship emoji?
Not by that name. Unicode’s emoji list, version 18.0, has a ship, a passenger ship and a ferry, and no wreck. 🚢🌊, Ship then Water wave, is the nearest pair.
Is there a sinking ship emoticon?
Typed ones. ~~~~~/|~~~~~ is the bow going under in plain ASCII, ~~~ o O o ~~~ is what is left a minute later, and glub glub glub is the sound.
What does sinking ship mean in a message?
An ongoing disaster, by Wiktionary. Its derived phrase is like rats from a sinking ship: quickly away from a failing project. The combo Rats leaving the ship is 🐀🐀🚢.
What is the SOS emoji?
🆘 is named SOS button, U+1F198, from Emoji 0.6, and it is the only emoji CLDR files under SOS. The combo Send help puts it before the ship: 🆘🚢.
All 52 items
Closest emoji 18
🫧BubblesU+1FAE7. The only emoji filed under underwater. Emoji 14.0.
🪣BucketU+1FAA3. Filed under bucket and pail. Emoji 13.0.
📉Chart decreasingU+1F4C9. Filed under down and trend. Emoji 0.6.
⛈️Cloud with lightning and rainU+26C8 U+FE0F. Filed under thunderstorm. Emoji 0.7.
⬇️Down arrowU+2B07 U+FE0F. Filed under down. Emoji 0.6.
⛴️FerryU+26F4 U+FE0F. Filed under boat and ferry. Emoji 0.7.
🕳️HoleU+1F573 U+FE0F. Filed under hole. Emoji 0.7.
🧊IceU+1F9CA. The only emoji filed under iceberg. Emoji 12.0.
🛳️Passenger shipU+1F6F3 U+FE0F. Filed under ship and passenger. Emoji 0.7.
🚣Person rowing boatU+1F6A3. Filed under rowboat and oar. Emoji 1.0.
🐀RatU+1F400. Filed under rat. Emoji 1.0.
🛟Ring buoyU+1F6DF. Filed under rescue and lifesaver. Emoji 14.0.
🫡Saluting faceU+1FAE1. Filed under salute and respect. Emoji 14.0.
🚢ShipU+1F6A2. One of four emoji filed under ship. Also filed under boat. Emoji 0.6.
🚢🫧Ship gone underShip, then bubbles.
🚢🌊Sinking shipShip, then water wave.
🆘SOS buttonU+1F198. The only emoji filed under SOS. Also filed under help. Emoji 0.6.
🌊Water waveU+1F30A. Filed under wave and ocean. Emoji 0.6.
Show all 52 items (34 more)
Going-down signs 6
◢Black lower right triangleU+25E2. A bow pointing at the sky. One plain character.
↴Rightwards arrow with corner downwardsU+21B4. Along, then straight down.
沉Sink, as a Han characterU+6C89. Sink or submerge, by the Unihan database.
↘South east arrowU+2198. Down and away.
𝍅Tetragram for sinkingU+1D345. The one character Unicode names for sinking, in the block Tai Xuan Jing symbols. May show as an empty box.
≋Triple tildeU+224B. Three lines of water.
Sinking ship emoticons 7
~~\__|_/~~ ~~~\_|~~~ ~~~~/|~~~~ ~~~~~~~~Four stages, left to right.
~~~~~/|~~~~~The bow going under, in plain ASCII.
≋≋≋◢≋≋≋The last of the bow, in two plain characters.
glub glub glubThe sound of it.
~~~ o O o ~~~Only the bubbles are left.
\(°o°)/ ~~~~/|~~~~A face with its arms up beside the bow.
SOS = ... --- ...The signal in Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots.
Sinking ship drawings 3
Funnels above the water, drawnFive lines: a mast with its flag and two funnels, and nothing else above the waves. Needs monospaced text.
Lifeboat rowing away, drawnFive lines: the last of the bow, and a lifeboat with two rowers.
Where the ship was, drawnFour lines: bubbles and a ring buoy on the water.
Sinking ship lines 6
abandon ship. meet at the lifeboatsFor calling it off.
bailing as fast as I can. send a bucketFor a deadline.
captain says we are fine. captain is wetFor a plan that is going badly.
glub glub. that is the whole updateFor a status line.
this group project is a sinking shipFor the idiom.
we hit the iceberg around slide fourFor a presentation.
Sinking ship combos 12
🚢🛟🏊Abandon shipShip, then ring buoy, then person swimming.
🙂🚢🫧All fine up hereSlightly smiling face, then ship, then bubbles.
🚢🪣💦Bailing outShip, then bucket, then sweat droplets.
🫡🚢🌊Going down with the shipSaluting face, then ship, then water wave.
🧊🚢Iceberg aheadIce, then ship.
🐀🐀🚢Rats leaving the shipRat, twice, then ship.
🛟🚢✅RescuedRing buoy, then ship, then check mark button.
🆘🚢Send helpSOS button, then ship.
🚢📉Sinking fastShip, then chart decreasing.
🚢🕳️💧Sprung a leakShip, then hole, then droplet.
⛈️🚢🌊Storm at seaCloud with lightning and rain, then ship, then water wave.
🚢➡️🚣To the lifeboatsShip, then right arrow, then person rowing boat.
How this list was compiled: Built on 2026-10-09 from sources read that day. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers are from the Unicode emoji list, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file. Search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml). Unicode has no emoji named sinking ship: no emoji name and no CLDR search word holds sinking, sink, sunk, shipwreck, wreck or capsize, and no character name in UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), holds sinking ship or shipwreck. One character is named for sinking, U+1D345 Tetragram for sinking, in the block Tai Xuan Jing symbols (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). CLDR files ship under four emoji (Anchor, Passenger ship, Ship, Trident emblem), underwater under Bubbles alone, iceberg under Ice alone, SOS under SOS button alone (U+1F198, Emoji 0.6, also filed under help), and rescue under Ring buoy and Rescue worker’s helmet. The meaning of the Han character is the kDefinition line of the Unihan database, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Unihan.zip). That a sinking ship is an idiom for something doomed, an impending debacle or an ongoing disaster, with the derived phrase like rats from a sinking ship (quickly but in vain, away from a failing project), is from Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinking_ship and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/like_rats_from_a_sinking_ship, CC BY-SA 4.0). That SOS is a Morse code distress signal of three dots, three dashes and three dots, agreed in 1906, that it was not at first an abbreviation and that save our ship was attached to it later, is from Wikipedia, SOS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS, CC BY-SA 4.0). The typed lines, the drawings, the caption lines and the combos are this site’s own work. Licence: own work: the selection, the combo names, the text drawings and the notes are this site's own. Emoji names, code points and search words are Unicode and CLDR data and Unihan data, used under the Unicode License v3 (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt). Facts from Wikipedia and Wiktionary are restated in this site's own words and credited in the source line.