Is Titanic II for Real?

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer claims he will build a second Titanic. The eccentric mogul has made plans to construct Titanic II, a replica of the storied ship that sank and claimed more than 1,500 lives about a century ago. The look-alike vessel will cross the Atlantic via the original route Titanic took. It will feature sets of 1912-era clothes in its cabins, so that passengers can make believe they live in a more fanciful age ahead of modern romance killers like polio vaccines and women’s suffrage.

But the scheme could be an elaborate hoax; this makes more sense than the arguably disrespectful alternative, which the Huffington Post calls “Clive’s folly.”

Our sister site Cruise Critic reports that something feels fishy about Palmer’s plans. According to Cruise Critic, “Red flags are flapping like the mouth of a first-class socialite after too many Manhattans. There’s the reputation of Mr. Palmer, a man associated with grand gestures, like a proposition to resurrect a dinosaur or the suggestion that the CIA and Greenpeace are bedfellows.” Further, the ship is set to be constructed by a Chinese yard that has no prior experience building cruise ships. And so far, Palmer has yet to make a legitimate legal deal between his cruise line and the shipping yard. Something’s not right here.

There’s also the problem of revenue. As Cruise Critic points out, the ship’s profitability isn’t promising: Two small Titanic theme cruises took place last year, only one of which sold out. And although the Titanic replica will have more passengers per square foot than any other ship in the industry, prices won’t be competitive. According to Budget Travel, “tickets will be rather steep, with the best first class cabins rumored to be priced at $1 million.” Are there really that many travelers on this planet willing to pay high prices to cruise on a crowded, cursed ship filled with costumes?

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if Palmer’s plan comes to fruition. Would you sail on Titanic II? Tell us in the comments.

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(Photo: Titanic via Shutterstock)