Clive Palmer’s Titanic II — an exact replica of the ill-fated Titanic – is set to retrace the same old route in 2022, exactly 110 years after the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in one of the world’s most infamous disasters at sea.
Mr Palmer’s company Blue Star Line has been working on the $700 million Titanic II project since 2012 and recently resumed construction of the replica after the project stalled due to financial disputes.
Titanic II is being built in a shipyard in China, rather than the Belfast shipyard in Northern Ireland where the original, “unsinkable” Titanic was built.
Aside from vastly improved navigation and safety technology and extra lifeboats on board, pretty much every else about the replica will be the same as the original. Titanic II will mimic the cabin layout of the original and will carry almost exactly the same number of people on board — 2400 passengers and 900 crew.
The original Titanic, in full Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic, was a British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 14–15, 1912, during its maiden voyage, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, killing about 1,500 passengers and ship personnel.
Here are some of the interesting lesser known facts about tragic incident
It was predicted 14 years before Titanic sank
Back to before the ship was even built, Morgan Robertson wrote a novella titled The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility about a fictional ocean liner that sinks due to a collision with an iceberg. In the book, the ship is described as being “unsinkable” and doesn’t have enough lifeboats for everyone onboard. The similarities are pretty uncanny
Some rich and famous people who escaped the tragic fate
The Hershey’s chocolate founder Milton S. Hershey had a ticket but did not board the ship.
Guglielmo Marconi — the inventor of the telegraph — had been offered free passage on the Titanic but instead boarded other ship.
Many lives might have been rescued, if…
Reportedly, there were not enough lifeboats at first to rescue all 2,200 people on board. Moreover, the ones launched went empty; they were not filled to the capacity. If they had been, 1,178 people might have been rescued, far more than the 705 who did survive.
Chief baker Joughin survived the sinking in the most incredible fashion
After the ship struck the iceberg, Joughin began tossing chairs overboard to be used as flotation devices. He also drank a lot of the ship’s liqueur storage. As the ship went down, he said he “rode it down as if it were an elevator.” He then spent several hours in the freezing cold water and lived to tell the tale.
“As we have lived, so will we die together” – the parting words of this couple
Isidor Straus, the co-owner of Macy’s department store was traveling with his wife Ida when the ship struck the iceberg. Ida refused to leave Isidor and get into a lifeboat. She gave her maid her fur coat, stating that she would not be needing it. She’s reported as having said, “I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.”
