Declaring it will be the safest cruise ship in the world and will have more than enough lifeboats just in case something goes wrong, the designer of what's supposed to be a replica of the Titanic has unveiled images of what the Titanic II will look like, inside and out.
It was almost a year ago, some Two-Way readers will recall, when we passed along word that Australian billionaire Clive Palmer had contracted with a Chinese shipbuilder to build such a ship.
This week, as the Daily Mail reports, Palmer and designer Markku Kanerva released artists' images of what the new Titanic will look like and details about how it will and won't be like the original:
-- "There will be capacity for 2,435 passengers and 900 crew. There will also be lifeboats that can carry 2,700 and a life rafts with an additional capacity of 800. The original Titanic had just 16 wooden lifeboats that accommodated 1,178 people, one third of the total capacity. Some 1,502 people died when it sank on April 15 1912. ...
-- "Just like in 1912 there will be three classes of passenger and those with different tickets will not be able to move between the classes, though there will be more toilets for the lower decks than the original. Everyone on board will however be provided with early-20th-century-style clothes and undergarments in their cabins to get them in the mood. Whilst there will be air conditioning there will be no TVs and no Internet in a bid to get back to the 'romance' of a bygone age."
The Daily Mail has put together a video with the artists' images. It's hoped the ship will sail in 2016.
We asked last year whether "if the cost wasn't an issue, would you want to be on the Titanic II's first voyage?" About 63 percent of those who responded said yes. Now that more is known about about the ship, we'll ask again.
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