Will Clive Palmer's Titanic II be a luxury cruise or Titanic-sized nightmare?
MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL JANUARY 13, 2014 12:00AM
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TITANIC NIGHTMARE 2:00
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Daniel Strudwick crosses to Channel Ten's Wake Up to discuss Clive Palmer's Titanic II.
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CLIVE Palmer will try to convince up to 1000 cruise ship passengers to live on stew and potatoes while dancing the Irish jig as he fine-tunes plans to relaunch the Titanic.
The billionaire MP has a minor problem with how to lure paying passengers into the infamous steerage section of the famous liner.
But the former real estate salesman didn't make his fortune without knowing a thing or two about marketing.
"Roughing it on the Titanic'' might be his sales pitch as he attempts to fill hundreds of third class cabins on the ship's maiden commercial voyage from Southampton to New York in 2017.
Are you keen to take a voyage on Titanic II? Have your say below.
Mr Palmer's new role as federal member for Fairfax has not dimmed his enthusiasm for recreating the world's most famous liner in a shipyard in China.
Tanks tests have been completed in Denmark showing the Titanic II's fundamentals are robust while cabins design is well advanced - and therein lies a problem.
Luxury cruise or a Titanic-sized nightmare?
Clive Palmer has released new details of Titanic II. Picture: News Limited Illustration
To be true to the original design the first class cabins will boast an opulence long gone from the cruise industry, which can no longer make a commercial return on mahogany-lined mini-mansions.
"First class on the Titanic was truly unbelievable, second class was like our first class and third class - well third class was really third class,'' Mr Palmer said.
But being true to the wealthy means being true to the poor.
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Hundreds of cabins below the waterline will replicate the cramped quarters of the mainly Irish immigrants who sailed on the doomed maiden voyage.
Beds with no sheets or pillow cases measured less than 60cm in width while hundreds shared bathrooms and recreation was limited to a few beery Irish jigs.
And the menu presents a major challenge.
"The Titanic original design had an area
PALMER OPENS PARK 1:43
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Clive Palmer has lived up to his reputation of eccentric billionaire, opening his new dinosaur theme park on the Sunshine Coast
under the water line two decks high and 40ft (12m) long simply marked "potatoes,'' Mr Palmer says.
The Titanic allowed for around 2500 passengers with around 1000 in first class, 500 in second class and 1000 in third class.
The ever optimistic Mr Palmer sees the poverty of the hopeful early 20th-century immigrants to the US at the centre of a marketing plan, with an adventure holiday component which stresses the pain will last only five or six days.
"We might offer to recreate the experience of those hopeful immigrants to America,'' he said.
Mr Palmer has made concessions to the 20th century in the ship's design but remains adamant that everything on board is a faithful reproduction.
He has even got hold of the training manuals for silver service waiters who will be required to serve vegetables in a prescribed manner.
Those rules also require the third class passengers to be deloused when they get to New York.
"And they will be deloused," Mr Palmer said.
"We might spray them with a hose full of confetti but they will have to have the experience.''
