Flamboyant Australian tycoon Clive Palmer unveiled his plan Tuesday for building a perfect replica of the Titanic — plus a lot of extra lifeboats. More than a century after the original, supposedly unsinkable ocean liner hit an iceberg and went down in the North Atlantic, Palmer thinks the time has come to complete the unfinished journey to New York. “The Titanic was the ship of dreams. Titanic II is the ship where dreams will come true,” Palmer said in New York at the project’s official launch.
Rebuffing public skepticism about the project, Palmer said a contract could be signed with China’s CSC Jinling Shipyard within days, with construction starting by the end of this year and the launch in 2016. He wouldn’t say what it will all cost.