life raft

• liferaft

life +‎ raft

life raft (plural life rafts)

1. A usually inflatable raft carried aboard a ship or airplane, used to save lives in case the vessel has to be abandoned in an emergency on the sea.
2. (figuratively) Something that provides help in a state of difficulty or despair.
   • 2019 February 6, Eliza Shapiro, “Racist? Fair? Biased? Asian-American Alumni Debate Elite High School Admissions”, in The New York Times‎:

     For Mr. Kim, a mediocre middle school student who was often in trouble, Stuyvesant, from which he graduated in 1993, was a life raft. Now, as the president of Stuyvesant’s alumni organization, an advocacy group with deep ties to politicians, he has one of the most powerful voices in the debate about specialized school admissions.

• lifeboat