The Titanic II's launch date has been pushed back two years to 2018, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer told the Belfast Telegraph Thursday in discussing his full-size replica of the luxury liner that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.
The Titanic II will resemble the original ship, but will also include important updates to meet modern
safety requirements, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
For example, the new ship will measure 13 feet wider and the hull will be welded together, not riveted.
"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, the global marketing director of Blue Star Line, told the Telegraph. Palmer owns Blue Star Line.
The ship will launch from Jiangsu, China, in 2018 and travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, scrapping its original plans of leaving from
Southampton, New York, this year, The Telegraph reported.
"We are not looking for investment from Dubai, as it is a project we are funding ourselves, but we have been in contact with a number of companies based in the Emirates who are looking at utilizing opportunities that arises with the
project," McDonald said, according to The Independent.
"It is people looking to use the opportunity of the trademark and licensing potential of the project . . .We own the Titanic II name and trademark and people are lining up to be part of it," he continued.
The Titanic II has the capacity to host 2,400 guests along with a crew of 900. The ship's lifeboats, which were a prominent plotline in the hit 1997 Hollywood movie, have been increased from accommodating
1,178 people to 2,700, according to Australia's Channel 9 News.
The original Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean in April 1912 after hitting an iceberg. Some 1,500 passengers and crew members died.
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