The sequel to Titanic is coming, but it’s not a movie. China is making a copy of a ship that will give passengers a luxury travel experience with a touch of history.
Since it hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, the Titanic has become a sad but interesting part of popular culture.
From the tragedy, movies, memorabilia, and even a musical have come out. But this may be the best tribute of all.
The sequel to Titanic is coming, but it’s not a movie. China is making a copy of a ship that will give passengers a luxury travel experience with a touch of history.
Since it hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, the Titanic has become a sad but interesting part of popular culture.
From the tragedy, movies, memorabilia, and even a musical have come out. But this may be the best tribute of all.
The billionaire Clive Palmer came up with the idea for the recreation. He was quoted on the BBC News website as saying, “Titanic’s legend has been kept alive for more than a century by mystery, intrigue, and respect for everything she stood for… Millions of people have dreamed of sailing on her, seeing her in port, and being able to experience her unique grandeur. These dreams will come true on the ship Titanic II.”
The work is being done by Blue Star Line in Brisbane, and there have been some problems along the way.
Titanic I had to deal with a dangerous iceberg, but Palmer’s project was stuck in a court case. The project was first announced in 2012, but it stopped in 2015 because of “disputed royalties from a Chinese conglomerate.”
Once that problem is fixed, the Titanic II is expected to leave Dubai in 2022 for a two-week trip to Southampton on its first trip.
On the morning of April 15, 1912, a picture was taken of this iceberg. It is thought to be the one that the Titanic hit.
The ship will then sail to New York, just like the first trip. Out in the North Atlantic Ocean, on this leg, the ship had its fatal run-in.
On April 14, as the clock neared midnight, an iceberg was seen. Even though the RMS Titanic had enough time to avoid a head-on collision, “a jagged underwater spur” cut it open below the waterline. It was big and strong enough to tear a 300-foot hole in the side of the ship.
Titanic II. Photo by MS Titanic II CC BY-SA 4.0
It took about three hours for the Titanic to sink. It had 2,240 passengers and crew on board, or “souls” as the shipping industry called them back then, especially when a ship was sinking. Only 705 made it through the night.
Some people think that the White Star Line rushed the boat into the water because of the fierce competition between shipping companies. They tried to compete with a company called Cunard.
Jennifer Hooper McCarty’s book What Really Sank the Titanic says, “Metal experts say the ship’s builders, Harland and Wolff, were under a lot of pressure to get enough iron to make three million rivets to hold the ship’s metal plates together. In a rush to beat the competition from Cunard, the White Star liner was given a ship made with low-quality materials.
A lack of planning for lifeboats was another thing that contributed to the disaster. History.com also talks about the design of the hull, which was thought to be “unsinkable” at the time.
It says, “The Titanic was doomed from the start because of a design that many people thought was cutting-edge.”
In June 2004, a picture was taken of the ship’s bow.
This included “15 watertight bulkhead compartments with watertight electric doors that could be opened one at a time or all at once from a switch on the bridge.”
But it had a major flaw that led to the Titanic’s sinking. Even though each bulkhead was watertight, the walls between them were only a few feet above the water line. This meant that water could flow from one compartment to another, especially if the ship started to list or pitch forward.
These things have become well-known and were probably thought about by Clive Palmer and his team.
The propellers and rudder of the Titanic.
Titanic II has turned out to be a controversial idea. But that wasn’t even close to a similar idea that also happened in China.
Read another one of our stories: 7 Amazing Tales of People Who Survived the Titanic
This version of the Titanic is part of an attraction at a theme park. At one point, “a simulation of it hitting the iceberg,” as the Evening Standard put it, was going to be part of the show.