Readers should will all know all about Clive Palmer’s Titanic II project and possibly the Romandisea project, the Chinese theme park, Titanic replica. You may have also heard about the SS Titan concept? However, did you know about the South African Titanic?
South African entrepreneur, Sarel Gous, proposed building a replica Titanic in 1998. Gous said he had got hold of the original drawings of the ship and now wanted to fulfil his dream.
Gous originally considered constructing the ship in Durban, South Africa. Subsequent to that, he commissioned a feasibility study into the project with Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the original RMS Titanic was built.
The project was priced at around £500 million. Gous said that he had raised the finance and that the construction of the ship would begin in 2001.
The brand name of his company was to be the White Star Line, a revival of the original defunct shipping line.
From the outset the intention was to build an exact copy, but with enough lifeboats. Due to maritime safety regulations, this proved to be impossible to achieve.
For example, It was no longer legal to have lifeboats mounted as high as they were on original Titanic’s boat deck. Modern regulations required that the life boats be mounted no higher than 15 meters or 49 feet, above the waterline
The last Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, had expressed her opposition to the project, at the time, saying that it was disrespectful to those who had died.
In 2006 the South African replica Titanic project was scrapped, due to high costs and a low support.
Malcolm/Wikipedia
Video of the South African Titanic – HERE
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