MS Titanic 2

Next links jump down directly to China's Titanic hotel and our concise RMS Titanic review featuring the provocative Titanic conspiracy video. You'll be surprised how much you don't know about the world's most tragic and best-known cruise ship disaster!

Godspeed to the new ship!

Clive Palmer's ship Titanic II

Creator of the Titanic 2 shipbuilding project is Clive Frederick Palmer (born March 26, 1954) - an Australian businessman, managing iron ore, nickel and coal holdings. Forbes Magazine estimated his wealth in January 2013 at USD 895 million.

In late-April 2012, Clive Palmer signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with one of China's largest shipbuilding companies - CSC Jinling - to construct a replica of RMS Titanic. Apart from his "Titanic 2" project, Palmer is also popular for another stunning plan - to create a Jurassic Park (with over 100 animatronic dinosaurs) in his resort in Coolum Beach - on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. In 2013, he formed the political party Palmer United, to compete for the federal election. He was a candidate for Division of Fairfax and won the election by 36 votes.

The replica cruise liner is planned to be 100% fireproof and with an ice-strengthened hull (ice-class PC6) to withstand icebergs and any weather extremes. The maritime industry's most advanced navigation equipment and all safety standards will be implemented.

"Titanic 2 Ship" project was initially joined by 3 big companies - Deltamarin (marine design, engineering, construction support), Tillberg Design Sweden (cruise ship design, hotel and restaurant interiors) and Lloyd's Register Group Ltd (marine and shipping services, vessel classification society). The Titanic replica project was supported by an advisory board. The ship model was tested in Germany.

In the period 2015-2018, the project was suspended because Olive Palmer was in dispute with China's state-owned CITIC Group Corporation Ltd over the payment of royalties (hundreds of millions of US dollars) to Palmer-owned companies.

On October 16, 2018, Clive Palmer (current Chairman of the Paris-based "Blue Star Line" company) appointed his nephew Clive Mensink (former director of Queensland Nickel, Townsville QLD Australia) as project's Director and company's CEO. He is responsible for staff recruitment, crew training and contractor negotiations. Company's headquarter office (in Paris France) is scheduled for opening in March 2019.

On October 30, 2018, as "Global Project Director" ("Titanic II") was announced Ms Baljeet Singh - lawyer and former Blue Star Line employee (Project Director in the period 2012-2015). Her job is to organize and attend planning and development meetings worldwide, liaising with USCG and US Gov agencies, overseeing the cruise company's European Director. Previously, she has worked for Clive Palmer as his mining company's Legal Director.

On December 17, 2018, was announced that V-Ships Leisure Ltd (a subsidiary of V-Group) is contracted as the ship management company for Titanic 2. V-Group is vessel management and support services provider, and industry's first with a dedicated cruise ship division (V-Ships Leisure).

On November 2, 2018, was announced that Deltmarin joins again the project. After reevaluating the project, in 2020 Deltmarin started to look for a shipbuilding yard as an alternative of the CSC Jinling Shipyard (China).

Titanic Ship Hotel in China (Romandisea Resort)

RMS Titanic inspired the Chinese company "Qixing Energy Investment Group" to build the famous ocean liner as a full-scale hotel ship replica. The order was placed with Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group.

The Chinese group manages energy factories. It announced the ship hotel project as a theme park - officially called "Romandisea Seven Star International Cultural Tourism Resort". The resort park is sized 6,7 km2 (2,6 ml2). It is located in Da Ying county (Sichuan Province, China) and includes attractions like spa resort (with Turkish baths), artificial beach, amusement park (with medieval castle replicas, Venetian church replica, clock tower, large swimming pool). Next image shows the resort's amusement park.

However, the resort's main attraction is the Titanic ship-hotel in life-size. The project's cost was nearly CNY 1 billion (USD 165 million / GBP 105 million). The construction was scheduled to start in 2014 and the opening was initially set for 2016.

The full-size replica ship is located over 1200 km (745 ml) from the sea (approx 114 km / 70 ml from Chengdu). It has length 269 m (882 ft) and width 28 m (92 ft). It also has original features - like theatre, ballroom, swimming pool, staterooms.

The hotel is floating (docked at Qi River / moored permanently within a reservoir). China's Titanic replica has a capacity for 1500 guests per day.

Qixing revealed the plan to rebuild the luxury ocean liner in January 2014. Tickets cost from CNY 3000 (GBP 350) per cabin per night. Suites cost from CNY 100,000 Yuan (GBP 11,580). The onboard entertainment includes Vegas-style show productions, ballroom dancing, pool deck parties, food menus with items from the original liner.

China's Titanic ship-hotel was designed in 2 years, with designer and technician services provided by USA and UK companies using the blueprints of RMS Olympic. The groundbreaking ceremony was in March 2015. The shipbuilder started manufacturing parts for the liner in May 2015. The Chinese Titanic had its keel-laying ceremony held on November 29, 2016. The event was attended by Lord Peter Mandelson (British politician). The vessel was re-scheduled for completion in 2018.

On-site assembly was planned for May 2015 but started in late-November 2016. In December 2017, hull's construction at the assembly site was completed. In September 2017, ship's construction was half complete, with built 6 out of all 9 decks. In January 2018 was announced that due to financial problems (increasing steel prices), the project is pushed back until 2019.

Around 50,000 tons of steel were used for its construction – more than the steel used for building an aircraft carrier. The replica ship includes many original features (Atrium's grand staircase, dining rooms, passenger cabins, swimming pool, boiler room 1, engine room, engine replica, mock-up steam engine) plus some new features (ballroom, cinema/theatre lounge). Originally was planned an audiovisual technology at ship's theatre to simulate the iceberg collision that resulted in the sinking, but the idea was later scrapped. Ship's disaster simulator allows "passengers" to feel the shipwreck atmosphere in 6D.

For a Royal Caribbean (Sovereign-Class) ship-shaped hotel see CruiseMapper's review of Sun Cruise Resort (Korea).

RMS Titanic

The maiden voyage of RMS Titanic started on April 10, 1912, at noon. The intended distance of the journey from England was approx 5350 km. Unfortunately, the liner didn't finish its first and only voyage. On April 14, after receiving 6 warnings for floating sea ice, the crew sighted an iceberg. Travelling near the max speed and unable to turn quickly enough, at 23:40 (ship time) Titanic struck the iceberg. In less than 10 seconds the hull was ripped opened (below the waterline) for a length of 91 m. Titanic sank 2 hours and 40 min later (at 2:20 ship time / 5:18 GMT) on April 15, 1912.

The tragic story of the Titanic ship is described in movies due to the fact that it combines money, ambition, love, courage and loss. The story was dramatized a few times. The first successful movie came in 1958, “A Night to Remember” (IMBD). It was an adaptation of Walter Lord’s book of the same name, published in 1955 and it was based on the stories of sixty-three survivors from the Titanic disaster. Without any doubt, the best movie, based on the Titanic story, was made by James Cameron. The movie “Titanic” (IMBD) came in 1997. The story focuses on the love between two fictional characters from different social classes: Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio).

The exact number of passengers and casualties is still a matter of discussion. Some (mainly business magnates) cancelled their trip just before ship's departure. Some travelled under false names and were added twice in the casualties list. Some died soon after the disaster due to injuries, hypothermia and other illnesses. Officially, Titanic left Ireland with 2224 passengers. About 1514 of them died and 710 were saved.

Exhibitions of different objects from the liner can be seen in museums such as Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the SeaCity Museum in Southampton.

Next YouTube video is dedicated on RMS Titanic's maiden (and last) voyage.

Next, you can watch "Did Titanic Really Sink" - representing the conspiracy theory that the sisterships RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic were “switched” in an insurance fraud scheme.

Unfortunately, in 2020, the intriguing and most provocative "Titanic Conspiracy Documentary" (2012 movie) was removed from YouTube.