A deckchair is a folding chair

Folding chair

A folding chair is a light, portable chair that that folds flat, and can be stored in a stack, row, or on a cart.-Uses:Folding chairs are generally used for seating in areas where permanent seating is not possible or practical. This includes outdoor and indoor events such as funerals, college...

, usually with a frame of treated wood or artificial material (for protection against the weather) and a fabric

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

 or vinyl

Vinyl

A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...

 backrest and seat. It may have an extended seat, meant to be used as a leg rest, whose height may be adjustable. It may also have arm rests.

It is meant for leisure

Leisure

Leisure, or free time, is time spent away from business, work, and domestic chores. It is also the periods of time before or after necessary activities such as eating, sleeping and, where it is compulsory, education....

, originally on a big cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

's deck

Deck (ship)

A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...

, which explains the origin of its name. It is easily transportable and stackable, although notouriously difficult to unfold and fold up to put away. The classic deckchair can only be locked in one position. Later, the strips of wood going toward the back were lengthened and equipped with supports so that there were several possible sitting positions. A removable footrest can also add to the comfort of the user.

There are often deckchairs around the pools of hotels and they are coveted by the guests. Since there are not enough places for everyone interested in a deckchair, they are marked as occupied by the placement of a personal article, usually a towel, already in the early morning, even though the user does not show up until much later.

During the golden age of ocean liner travel, the deckchairs upon actual ships' decks were sometimes reserved for particular passengers for whom crew would attach a paperboard name tag to the wicker seat-back. Such a tag is visible on an empty deckchair near the center in a famous 1912 photo showing survivors of the RMS Titanic disaster after rescue while they rest on the deck of RMS Carpathia

RMS Carpathia

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...

. The same system was in use aboard Carpathia two years later; a reservation tag is visible on the empty deckchair in the lower right of a 1914 photo.

The available deckchair models range from simple wooden constructions to luxury models with electrically adjustable seating positions.

Usage

To "rearrange the deck chairs" is a popular saying meaning that things have changed only apparently. The phrase, "rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic" amplifies on it by implying that someone is overly concerned with unimportant minutiae during a crisis.