Can you believe it's about to be 20 years since James Cameron's Titanic, the highest grossing movie ever, hit the big screen? Some of you reading this haven't even been alive that long! I digress. Recently Titanic star Kate Winslet kept it one hundred with audiences revealing she too believed Rose was cold-blooded in not insisting that Jack climb on to the door with her instead letting him die with the thousands of others who perished because of the ship's crash. Don't forget that the movie was based on the real events of the RMS Titanic, which crashed into an iceberg and sank on April 14, 1912. Now a replica ship of the Titanic years in the making is set to sail in 2018.
Plans for the replica, a project from Australian millionaire and owner of cruise company Blue Star Line Clive Palmer, were announced back in 2012 with it set to originally sail in 2016. The Titanic II is reportedly being built in China's CSC Jinling Shipyard. Estimated at $7.5 million its predecessor was built from 1909 to 1912 with room for 2,223, the Daily Mailreports. The Titanic II is reportedly costing anywhere between $300 million and $400 million according to the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail also reports the Titanic II will accommodate 2,435 passengers in 840 cabins, divided for the three economic classes, as well as 900 crew members. Most importantly, the Titanic II will be equipped with more lifeboats (2,700) compared to the Titanic's (1,178) a reason why over 1,500 people died in the original disaster. Honoring the original Palmer has mostly kept everything in the ship the same including the grand staircase and a smoking room, making room for slight technological advances, per the project's website.
"There was even talk in the past of supplying period costumes for Titanic II passengers who want to get into the spirit, although it's not known if that is still being considered," writes the Daily Mail, which, morbid if true. The Titanic II won't recreate the original's trip, instead choosing to sail from Jiangsu, China, to Dubai. Here's some photos of the original Titanic followed by renderings of what the Titanic II will look like:
