A real-life Titanic replica is to set sail in 2018

It is widely regarded as the most ill-fated voyage of all time, but a fully functioning replica of the Titanic will now set sail in 2018, two years behind schedule. After years of development, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer announced that the Titanic II - which is being created in the image of history’s most famous cruise liner - will set sail in two years’ time, a little more than a century after its predecessor made its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean.

The new Titanic will of course have modern evacuation procedures, satellite controls, digital navigation and radar systems and all those things you’d expect on a 21st century ship.

Blue Star Line’s marketing director James McDonald, speaking to the Independent newspaper

The new Titanic is being built to mirror the Belfast liner which infamously sank after hitting an iceberg in April 1912. But with a few modifications. Like its predecessor, the Titanic II will have three cabin classes. The ship will span nine floors and be able to carry 2,400 passengers. Other features will include Turkish baths, swimming pool and gymnasium. Instead of Southampton to New York, however, the ship’s maiden voyage will be between Jiangsu, China, where it’s being built, to Dubai.

Titanic