At a New York news conference, Australian mining tycoon Clive Palmer said his plan to launch a copy of the Titanic and sail it across the Atlantic would be a tribute to those who had built and backed the original ship.
“We will complete the journey. We will sail into New York on the ship they designed,” he said.
The four-funnelled outline of Titanic II is an almost exact match with the original, which struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.
The ship is set for launch in 2016 and will cover a similar route. Some 40,000 applications have been received for the maiden voyage.
Unlike the original, however, Titanic II will have a modern hospital aboard, a helicopter landing pad, full air-conditioning and access to high-speed internet. And, while the original was built in Belfast, its successor it to be built in the Jinling Shipyard in China.–(Guardian service)