The project of the Australian fat cat Clive Palmer about a new Titanic has been known for years. Blue Star, the company headed by the magnate and in charge of the project, launched the idea in 2012, a century after the Titanic’s wreck (April 1912) which caused 1,500 dead. The new ship should have been ready this year.
When it was evident that Titanic II wouldn’t have been ready for the fixed deadline, people on the Web started to talk about a damnation around the name which would have “drowned” the project, but Mr. Palmer was quick to deny and he confirmed the launch of Titanic II in spring 2018.
After all, some delays in a such great challenge is normal. The new Titanic (built in China) will be 40 tons, 270 m long, 53 m high, and 4 m larger than the original ship in order to ensure high safety. Always in terms of safety, the hull will be welded and not riveted (a not irrelevant detail). There will be 9 decks with 840 cabins for 2,400 passengers and 900 crew members; like in the past, the decks will be divided into three different classes. But this time there will be enough lifeboats and modern technologies, radar systems, satellites and evacuation plans.
The principal change concerns the route chosen for the launch: from Jiangsu (China) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and not from New York to London like 100 years ago. The Australian magnate declares he doesn’t need any sponsors but there is a lot of interest around the Titanic brand and the challenge, especially in China and in the Arabic world. It would be interesting to know also the ticket price of the first Titanic II’s travel but for the moment nothing is certain: according to rumours, offers would have reached 1 billion Euros. Despite superstition, high prices and the protests of the relatives of Titanic’s wreck victims (who accuse the project of “low sensibility”), demands seem to be many.
Below, some photos of Titanic II’s interiors published by Blue Star:
