Billionaire Says His Long-Delayed 'Titanic II' Ship Will Be Antidote to 'Woke' Politics [View all]

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/titanic-ii-billionaire-vaccine-free-1234994694/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/BWVQo

IT SEEMS REASONABLE to expect that just about anything can and will go wrong with a full-size replica of a cruise ship that famously sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people aboard. But Titanic II, Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer’s proposed heir to the original RMS Titanic, hasn’t faced a disaster so far — because over the decade and change that Palmer has been pitching it, nothing has been built.

First announced in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic‘s fateful voyage, Palmer envisions the Titanic II, operated by his company Blue Star Line, as a historically accurate tribute to its namesake, right down to the cramped steerage cabins. Of course, there will be some tweaks to ensure it reaches its destination this time: Palmer wants the ship to have cutting-edge navigation equipment, safety systems, and plenty of lifeboats. Throughout the many snags in the project — including payment disputes and scrapped plans to build in a Chinese shipyard — very little of this core idea has changed, with Palmer brushing off skeptics by reminding them that he has the money and determination to see it through.

What has changed somewhat is how Palmer, who in the past decade has served in Australian parliament and chaired a right-wing political party he founded, describes the symbolism of the Titanic(s). In a March 13 press conference at the Sydney Opera House to announce his recommitment to reconstructing the doomed ocean liner, Palmer said it would be a beacon of hope amid war in Ukraine and Gaza, bring people together after the era of Covid lockdowns, and embody traditional values as opposed to “woke” politics. Here, he talks with Rolling Stone about what he thinks Titanic II crossing the Atlantic into New York Habor would mean to the world.

This has been in the works for a long time, but how did you originally get interested in the Titanic?

It’s very topical. I originally got interested because we know how to make war — see what’s happening in Ukraine and Gaza. It’s much more difficult to make peace in the world. And the Titanic is an international symbol. It’s a symbol of love and peace, really. I mean, the movie, everyone knows the Jack and Rose story. All of us have a Jack and Rose story of our own. So I thought it’d be good to do something to promote those aspects in life. Secondly, we need to remember the people of the Titanic, and some of the values that we question in society today disappearing, such as courage and self-sacrifice. You remember the musicians on the Titanic that stood there at their station, playing “Nearer My God to Thee”? They were more concerned about the people that were with than themselves. We’re running our culture into a self-centered society, so we want to refocus on those things. We thought we could design the whole ship and have it ready in three to four years construction. But it took about five to six years to design. Originally, the challenge was much greater because we had to incorporate all the safety provisions and still keep the design of the ship the same — that was a lot harder than we thought. And we know what happened with cruise shipping and Covid, we had to stop and pause and see what was happening, but today shipping has come back. It gives us the time to pull those plans off the shelf and to get the project moving.

*snip*


Not gonna lie, I'm rooting for a 'woke' iceberg.