Year 2012 celebrated the 100th anniversary of the maiden journey of the world's most expensive and biggest luxury liner of its time - Titanic. The legendary ship sailed from London to New York, but was never to be seen again as it hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and went down leaving some 1500 passengers dead.
Titanic became alive when the Oscar laced motion picture Titanic was released in the late 90s, with a fabricated love story featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The story of the sinking ship reminded the remaining survivors and the world in general the chilly moments of its sinking and the chaos created due to non availability of the requisite number of boats, which if properly planned could have saved many of those who froze to death in the ice cold water of the Atlantic.
This April many people threw flowers at the exact site where the unfortunate Titanic rests in the Atlantic and said goodbye to the wreckage down below for the last time as those who were there may not be there in 2112 to repeat the ritual - and the Titanic was to be forgotten for next one hundred years.
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| Rebirth of Titanic - Titanic-II that sails on its maiden journey in 2016 |
But this is not going to be so, as from the wreckage of the ill fated Titanic, there emerges Titanic-II, a replica of the Titanic, which will sail most probably in 2016 on exactly the same route as did the the Titanic.
Titanic-II is the brainchild of an Australian billionaire Clive Palmer, who announced Monday 30th April that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the Titanic II.
Palmer claims that:
"It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but ... will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems - a project that will be a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original Titanic."
Unlike the original Titanic which ran on coal power, the Titanic II will be diesel operated. But will have four smoke stacks like the coal-powered original, to make it look like the original Titanic and be remembered as such.
There would now be some modifications to the original designs, but mostly these will be in the portion that would remain under water. These would include welding rather than rivets, a bulbous bow for greater fuel efficiency and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters for increased maneuverability.
Although Titani II would look exactly like the same Titanic and would carry 1,680 passengers as did the Titanic, there would be one major difference - Titanic II will not be the biggest liner of the world as now much bigger ships sail with passenger capacity of over 2,000 passengers. However, for the onlookers, the sailing of Titanic II would remind the jubilation and euphoria of that fateful day when the original Titanic sailed from London to its journey to the fathomless depths of the Atlantic.
For those travelers and tourists that still prefer to travel by sea, Titanic II should be a dream of tomorrow. When it sails in 2016, it would perhaps attract more world attention than did the original Titanic. Would you want to be aboard Titanic II on its maiden sail?
