Sid Astbury, DPA/Sydney
Australian mining mogul Clive Palmer said yesterday he would build a Titanic replica and have the Chinese navy escort his new cruise liner into New York harbour on its maiden voyage from England in 2016.“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 in a statement.“We have invited the Chinese navy to escort Titanic II on its maiden voyage to New York.”Palmer, 58, said design work had begun. The flagship of his new Blue Star Line would have the same dimensions as the original as well as have the same 840 state rooms and nine decks.Palmer, who made his A$5bn (US$5.2bn) fortune selling coal and iron ore to China, said China’s CSC Jinling Shipyard would build the vessel. He did not reveal the cost of the project or whether China was a co-investor in Blue Star Line, which plans a fleet of cruise ships.Palmer said the rebuild was a tribute to those in the Belfast, Northern Ireland shipyard who built the Titanic for White Star Line.“These people produced work that is still marvelled at more than 100 years later and we want that spirit to go on for another 100 years,” he said.The announcement came 100 years after the sinking of the 40,000-ton Titanic on April 15, 1912. It went down after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic from England’s Southampton en route to New York.
In a nod to fuel economy, Titanic II would be powered by diesel engines rather than coal, be welded rather than riveted and have a larger rudder and the addition of bow thrusters for ease of manoeuvring. Hidden away below the water line, it would have the now-standard bulbous bow to save on fuel.Palmer, a colourful character who last year bought a million-dollar yacht for his daughter’s 15th birthday, lists litigation as his hobby.Among his current legal disputes is one with Football Federation Australia over the handing back of a football club franchise.Last month, Palmer claimed the US Central Intelligence Agency was conspiring with environmentalists and the Greens party to wreck the Australian mining industry.“This is a man who thinks litigation is fun, who thinks it fun to invent conspiracy theories that defame another political party and then to say he made it up to distract the media,” Greens leader Christine Milne said.In 2009, Palmer made international headlines as the world’s most generous boss by giving Christmas presents to his staff that included 55 Mercedes-Benz cars and 1,500 all-expenses paid family holidays in Fiji.