“Made in China” Titanic II to sail from England to New York in 2016: Interested?

Clive Palmer, is an ambitious Australian billionaire with varied interests, like golf courses, hotels, coal and iron-ore mining projects, a nickel smelter, a soccer team and a horse stud.  He also decided on the fly to build the 21st century Titanic.  It will be modeled after the legendary ship that sank in Atlantic, but with modern safety standards.

There will be a safety deck, but the the first, second and third-class divisions – as now popularly known from that night’s ordeal – will be kept intact.  The $500 million will have the same dimensions as the original ship.  And like the original, will have 840 rooms over the nine decks.

“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,” Palmer said, along with gymnasiums and swimming pools. (link)

It seems like a fantastic idea and one which will sell well as well – thanks to an entire industry on Titanic memorabilia!  However, there is a twist.  This ship is being built by the CHINESE!  Nanjing-based CSC Jinling Shipyard will build Titanic II and other luxury ships for Palmer.  Don’t want to ding the Chinese – for they have done excellent work in other fields – but this will be their FIRST attempt at building a “cruise ship”.
In fact this Titanic replica will journey from England to New York accompanied by the Chinese navy by the end of 2016.  Not sure that gives someone like me a whole lot of confidence in the builders confidence it his design!  If you need to have a whole Navy around to save it, you know its fragile!  🙂

I don’t know about others, but I would give this voyage a pass for now.