Some ideas just feel bad from the get-go. “Titanic II” has to top that list. Nonetheless, some fate-tempting souls say they’re going to do it. Australia’s Blue Star Line (whimsically named after the owners of the original Titanic, White Star Line) are working on a $500 million seagoing recreation of the 1912 original. It’s scheduled to set sail in 2022.
Will it carry almost exactly the same number of passengers (2,400) and crew (900)? Well of course it will. And will its maiden voyage mirror Titanic’s? Why not. Blue Star plans for the luxury doppelganger to depart Southampton, and if all goes well to do what the original could not: dock in New York.
And if that all sounds like hubristic madness, well, rest assured that this time around she’ll be carrying enough lifeboats for everyone. That’s progress, I suppose. Also, our latter-day climate makes North Atlantic sea ice a little less likely.
Icebergs? Those are so last century.
