“You don’t back a horse called Striding Snail, you don’t name your boat Titanic II.”
Sound advice from the 1996 Beautiful South tune, “Little Blue.”
One man, however, seems hell bent on ignoring such plain folk wisdom in an audacious pursuit to rewrite history.
At a Tuesday press event in New York, Australian billionaire chairman of Blue Star Line shipping company Clive Palmer unveiled blueprints for his company’s planned Titanic II, an exact replica of the haunted 1912 cruise liner that … well, you’ve seen the movie.
Palmer claims Titanic II will be the safest cruise ship in the world when it sets sail in 2016 from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, following the ill-fated Titanic’s original planned route.
The press event, held at New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, was part of an ongoing campaign to promote the Titanic II launch. Blue Star held a “Titanic II Gala Dinner” at the Venetian in Macau earlier this month to drum up interest among wealthy Chinese.
As reported in May 2012, Palmer has commissioned a Chinese shipyard to build the replica ship.
The mining magnate won’t say exactly how much money he’s sunk into the project, but he doesn’t appear worried about those who might be leery about boarding such a dubiously named vessel. Palmer says he's received offers of up to US$1 million for passage on the ship’s maiden voyage.
We assume that’s not for steerage.
No word yet on deck chair arrangements.
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