Some good news for anyone who can’t help yelling “I’m the king of the world” whenever they board a boat – the Titanic is going to sail again.

Actually, the Titanic II, an exact replica of the Titanic with some added safety features, is going to sail again.

For six years, Clive Palmer, the Australian mining tycoon and politician, has been trying to build the controversial boat, in the hopes of completing the journey that the original Titanic started before getting permanently delayed by an iceberg.

Here’s The Telegraph:

News of Mr Palmer’s plan to build Titanic II first surfaced back in 2012. At the time of the initial announcement, the billionaire’s escapades were prolific in the Australian national press and no one took the revelation particularly seriously. Especially given the rather rambling and mildly comical nature of the announcement.

“It will be a ship of peace,’’ he said at the time. “We will complete the journey. We will sail into New York. On the ship that they designed. That they envisaged.

“Titanic comes from a time when the world was different”, his love letter to the past continued. “When there was a different culture, different ways of living. When people worked with each other more. And as James Cameron reminds us… my heart will go on.

Here’s the best part. Palmer clearly loves the film adaptation of the Titanic story:

“By learning from the lessons of the past, the spirit of Rose and Jack… lives in all of us.’’ Who knew?

I sure didn’t. You learn something new every day. Despite constant delays in production, Palmer insists that the project is a labour of love.

“I’ve been in love, I’m in love at the moment. And if you’re not in love you long to be in love. What’s wrong with love? It’s very, very easy to make war – we have armies, we have navies, we have air forces – but it’s a lot harder to make peace.

“And by taking Titanic II, by recreating that… we’ve built it with a concept of love that we all want. And that’s what’s common to man – in China, in Europe and the United States. And that’s why it has got such universal appeal.”

Titanic II will be equipped with enough lifeboats to hold everyone if it goes the same way as its predecessor, so there won’t be any awkward memes afterwards about the space on floating doors.

Jack could have fit on that door too Rose, just saying…

The original Titanic, carrying 2,224 passengers and crew, was sunk after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage on April 15 1912. It had 16 wooden lifeboats which accommodated just 1,178 people – a third of the total capacity.

The new ship will be able to carry 2,435 passengers and 900 crew. Crucially it will have lifeboats that can carry 2,700 and life rafts with an additional capacity of 800.

One thing that won’t change is the rampant class division. There will be three classes and they won’t be allowed to mingle because “authenticity is key”. Spot the difference in the dining rooms above and below.

Apart from the air conditioning and the hospital, the replica will stay as true to the original as possible.

Keen? Financial problems have set things back a bit, but the new Titanic is set to sail in 2022.

I wouldn’t bank on it, though. Given that we will probably have destroyed the planet through climate change, at least there is a reduced iceberg risk.

[source:telegraph]