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Titanic: Aboard a legend

30 May 2021

Titanic replica to open as Chinese tourist destination while Titanic II gets set to sail in 2022

Many generations over the past century grew up fascinating about the  ‘Titanic’ which sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The 21st century, however, will see the legendary ship come to life in at least a couple of interesting new forms identical to the original.

A brand new Titanic II will set sail and conquer the ocean with all its majesty and glory along the same, ill-fated route in 2022. It will be a one of a kind luxurious cruise ship as revealed by the owner and project chief Clive Palmer, an Australian businessman. The new Titanic II will be an exact copy of the original Titanic which set sail in the year 1912.

Titanic II will set sail on it’s original journey, that is, carrying passengers to New York from Southampton. It will also go around the globe, to gather attention and intrigue every Titanic lover. The maiden voyage will take place from Dubai to New York, in it’s first sail that is expected to happen in late 2022, sources said.

On the other hand, the Titanic is being brought back to life at a landlocked Chinese theme park where tourists can soon splash out for a night on a fullscale replica. The project’s main backer was inspired to recreate the world’s most infamous cruiseliner by the 1997 box office hit of the same name – once the world’s top-grossing film and wildly popular in China.

The original luxury vessel, the largest of its time and branded ‘unsinkable’ by its owners, has become a byword for hubris ever since it plunged into the depths of the Atlantic in 1912 after striking an iceberg, leaving more than 1,500 people dead.

Centrepiece of Sichuan

Investor Su Shaojun says he was motivated to finance the audacious, 260-metre-long (850-foot-long) duplicate to keep memories of the Titanic alive. “I hope this ship will be here in 100 or 200 years,” Su said, adding, “We are building a museum for the Titanic.”

It has taken six years – longer than the construction of the original Titanic – plus 23,000 tonnes of steel, more than a hundred workers and a hefty one billion yuan (US$153.5mn) price tag. Everything from the dining room to the luxury cabins and even the door handles are styled on the original Titanic.

It forms the centrepiece of a Sichuan province theme park more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the sea. The site features a replica of Southampton Port seen in James Cameron’s 1997 disaster epic. Also, tour buses play the film’s theme tune – Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on’, on repeat.

It costs up to 2,000 yuan (around US$150) to spend one night on the ship for the ‘five-star cruise service’, Su says, adding that with a functioning steam engine guests will feel that they are really at sea. He was so excited by the challenge that he sold his energy industry assets, including a stake in several hydropower projects, to invest in the Titanic.

White elephants

But even before opening, the replica has drawn plenty of controversy. Online users have questioned whether the famous ship would attract tourists given the disaster that struck its real-life inspiration.

Others feared it would join other ambitious Chinese building projects that turned into white elephants – including a 2008 replica of the USS Enterprise, an American aircraft carrier, which cost over US$18mn and was abandoned shortly after it opened.

Su, however, hopes as many as five million annual visitors will come to see his Titanic. “This tourist volume should guarantee the return of our investment,” he added.

Project manager Xu Junnian said he felt it was important to preserve the vessel’s memory. “The greatest significance of building this ship is to carry forward and inherit the great spirit of Titanic,” he said.

Aside from the enduring appeal of the Hollywood blockbuster, the Titanic has stolen headlines in China in recent weeks with the release of a new documentary called ‘The Six’ which tells the story of a group of Chinese travellers on board when the ship sank, of whom six survived.

But the developers are hoping to rope in some bigger names to help draw visitors. “We’d like to invite Jack, Rose and James Cameron to the inauguration ceremony,” Su said

(with inputs from AFP)

 

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