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THIS is the inside story of doomed plans for a Titanic replica ship and theme park hotel, which sank without a trace.
The legend of the original ship, which sank in 1912, has spread across the globe, but plans of copycat vessels and attractions were just as ill-fated.
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The first project to be announced was the proposal for Titanic II, which was intended to be a functional replica of its namesake.
It was unveiled by Australian mining mogul Clive Palmer in 2012, with the intention that it would be used as the flagship for the newly established Blue Star Line.
It was designed by a Finnish naval architecture firm in collaboration with a number of historical experts and was set to be built by CSC Jinling, which is owned by the Chinese state.
Under the plans, it would be a nine-deck, 840-room giant powered by hi-tech navigation systems and a diesel-electric propulsion engine.
However, the project was delayed from a launch date of 2016 to 2018 and then again to 2022.
As of last year, there has been no update on its progress and it has not been confirmed whether construction has begun.
Blue Star Line has not updated its website in five years and has not posted to the Titanic II Twitter for four years, as of this month.
Titanic II was also previously proposed by South African businessman Sarel Gous in 1998, but plans were abandoned in 2006 over cost concerns.
Another revival project to hit the metaphorical iceberg was the Romandisea Titanic, which was primed to be the central feature of the Romandisea resort in Sichuan, China, complete with hotels.
Unlike Titanic II, the ship was actually partially built, but the boastfully named “Unsinkable Titanic” has spent nearly a decade rusting in a dry dock in the landlocked province.
It was scheduled to open in 2017 at a cost of £150 million, complete with a replica iceberg designed to “simulate” the fateful crash that left 15,000 people dead.
At a press conference announcing the new ship, project boss Su Shaojun infamously said: “When the ship hits the iceberg, it will shake, it will tumble.
“We will let people experience water coming in by using sound and light effects.
“They will think ‘The water will drown me, I must escape with my life.'”
Work began again in 2021, after stopping in 2018 amid rumoured financial troubles.
However, since last year the attraction’s website has been offline and its Twitter account suspended, with no further updates published.
It comes after incredible 3D images revealed never seen before details of the Titanic’s shipwreck.
The stunningly detailed scans show everything from unopened champagne bottles on the sea floor to a huge void where the grand staircase once stood.
The original Titanic, built by Harland and Wolff of Belfast, set sail for the White Star Line on April 10 1912.
However, five days into its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, claiming the lives of almost half of the people on board.
Interest in the disaster was rekindled by James Cameron’s epic 1997 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
It was the world’s highest-grossing film and currently sits third in the ranking when adjusted for inflation, behind only Cameron’s own Avatar and 1939 classic Gone with the Wind.
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