Inside the Titanic: Replica cruise liner could be ready to set sail in 2018

Titanic II, the new version of the doomed ocean liner, is being built complete with a small swimming pool, Turkish baths, a gym with Edwardian equipment and a squash court.

The estimated £400million replica will sail its maiden voyage from Jiangsu, China, to Dubai, if the project completes.

Although the real Titanic sunk in the Atlantic Ocean more than 100 years ago, Australian businessman and politician Clive Palmer, who owns Blue Star Line, believes there is an appetite for its return.

The new vessel will have 840 cabins across its three classes and a capacity of 2,435 passengers and 900 crew.

And like the original ‘unsinkable’ cruise liner will include dining rooms, the grand staircase, a smoking room.

Café Parisien and the Marconi Room will be recreated, almost to the exact detail based on renderings produced by the Brisbane-based cruise line.

The new design images do not show if the boat will also be decked out with mod cons like flat screen TVs, or if passengers will be voyaging back in time.

Titanic II will meet modern safety and design requirements, meaning it will have a welded hull instead of a riveted one, a diesel-electric propulsion system instead of steam engines, stabilisers, and high-tech navigational equipment.

And it will have enough lifeboats for everyone on board – there was a shortage on the doomed Titanic which struck an iceberg in 1912.

It will also be complete with a helipad on the aft deck.

RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

It was the world’s largest ship at the time and was carrying 2,224 people.

Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on board, including property tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to his family’s mining business, also perished, along with Isidor Straus, the German-born co-owner of Macy’s department store.

The ship was the largest afloat at the time and was designed in such a way that it was meant to be ‘unsinkable’.

It was not until 1985 that the wreck of the ship was discovered in two pieces on the ocean floor.

Titanic II will be 13ft wider than the original ship, but its length (885ft), height (174ft) and weight (40,000 tonnes) will be similar and it too will have nine decks, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

Although no price tag has been put on the project, construction cost estimates have ranged from £300million to £400million.

Despite class divisions being much more prominent in 1912, the newer Titanic will keep the first, second and third class cabins.

Mr Palmer had originally planned for a 2016 launch, but last September a spokesman for Palmer said the launch would be delayed until 2018.

Palmer, a 61-year-old MP in Australia’s House of Representatives, is a controversial figure Down Under and has been in the public firing line after his Queensland Nickel business went into voluntary administration, leaving the jobs of more than 200 workers in limbo.

This week, Palmer denied claims his company was in financial difficulty when about AUD$6million (£2.9million) was directed to his political party, amid concerns the ship may never be built.

Critics have said it may be insensitive to victims and their descendants to go ahead with the project.

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