Titanic II is set to launch in less than two years — not in movie theaters, but on the open sea.
A replica of the world’s most famous “unsinkable” ship — which struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912, killing 1,503 people — is under construction, with a maiden voyage planned for 2018.
Australian tycoon and politician Clive Palmer — not J. Bruce Ismay — is at the helm of the ambitious project to faithfully recreate the luxury ship, which will be about 13 feet wider to meet current regulations.
More importantly, it will carry enough lifeboats for every passenger and its hull will be welded, not riveted, just in case it comes across a rogue iceberg, the Belfast Telegraph reports.
“The new Titanic will of course have modern evacuation procedures, satellite controls, digital navigation and radar systems and all those things you’d expect on a 21st-century ship,” James McDonald, global marketing director of Palmer’s company, Blue Star Line, told the paper.
The new nine-deck ship will be 885 feet long, about two more than her doomed predecessor, 174 feet high and have a maximum speed of 24 knots. She will accommodate 2,400 passengers — 177 more than the RMS Titanic.
It also will feature the same categories of passengers — from the first-class movers and shakers to the hoi polloi in third class, where poor Leonardo DiCaprio was berthed in the classic movie.
Unlike the Belfast-built original, the Titanic II is under construction by the CSC Jinling Shipyard in Jiangsu, China.
Its maiden voyage will not be from Southampton to New York, but rather from Jiangsu, China, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the paper reported.
Some of the dead passengers’ relatives have criticized the plans for a new Titanic, but Blue Star has reportedly been flooded with requests for tickets — with some offering up to about $900,000 for a spot on the first trip.