Melbourne: An Australian mining magnate today unveiled plans to build Titanic II, which may make its maiden voyage from England to New York in 2016, a century after the luxury ship sank on its first trans-Atlantic voyage. Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer said that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the replica of Titanic, heralded as the world’s largest, most luxurious and safest ocean liner before it set sail in April 1912.
“It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems,” he told the media.
More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in April 1912. Palmer said the new ship was a tribute to the those workers who built the original luxury liner.
“These people produced work that is still marvelled at more than 100 years later and we want that spirit to go on for another 100 years. It is going to be designed so it won’t sink. It will be designed as a modern ship with all the technology to ensure that doesn’t happen,” Palmer added. (PTI)