Titanic II will have a higher bridge relative to the bow, that the original RMS Titanic. The superstructure has been raised by 1.3 metres by the centre section of the safety deck, and also by the removal of the sheer. This will give the Master and officers a better view over the bow and negates the requirement on the original Titanic for lookouts.
Titanic II is a recreation of a 1912 Ocean liner, but her equipment, such as lifeboats, propulsion and control systems will all be modern. She will have a state-of-the-art bridge, with all of the equipment that entails.
Below is the first rendering of Titanic II’s Navigational Bridge:
However if you look through the bridge windows, in front of it, is a re-creation of the original Titanic’s bridge – see below.
If you look at the next image, the Titanic II rendering (above) faithfully recreates the original RMS Titanic bridge (below).
Mr. Palmer’s Titanic II plan is that the re-creation of the original bridge will not actually have any function, but will be open to the passengers, to visit.
This is a nice idea, however the idea has a major flaw…
The Flaw In the Plan
I’m not a navel architect, but surely this bridge concept is impractical.
Mr, Palmer has located the re-created ‘original’ bridge in front of the actual functioning ‘modern’ bridge.
The captain and the crew on any ships bridge, need to be able to clearly see out of the bridge windows. They need to look over the bow, at the sea in front of the vessel, when underway. Although there are now many modern navigational aids, such as radar, it is important to still make regular visual inspections (often using binoculars).
Visiting passengers would obscure the view of the sea. They would also create some noise and their cameras would create flashes. Surely this is NOT acceptable, under maritime safety regulations and common sense?
I’m pretty sure that this concept will be changed in the final design
A Solution
The solution is to locate the ‘original’ bridge somewhere else on the ship and move the ‘modern’ bridge forward to where it belongs. This will give the captain and crew an unobstructed view of the sea, in front of the vessel.
But where do you put the ‘original’ bridge’?
If they used monitors for windows, displaying the sea, the ‘original’ bridge could be located just about anywhere onboard.
It has been suggested that there would be quite a lot of spare space deep within the hull of Titanic II. This is because the modern propulsion equipment occupies a lot less space, when compared to Titanic’s original steam engines, boilers and coal storage.
There was talk of there being a museum display in the hull (un-confirmed). The bride could from an interesting part of that display.
My other idea, would be to put the recreation of the ‘original’ bridge directly on top, or below, the ‘modern’ one. This would give the ‘original’ bridge a very similar front facing view to the ‘modern’ bridge and feel much more natural to the visitors. It would also make a great observation point when entering or leaving a port, for example. There would also be absolutely no disruption of the captain and crews’ work.
The only downside to this idea, is that it would change the front profile of the ship. However looking at rendering below, there does appear to be room underneath the existing bridge, to do this discreetly.
If any of Mr. Palmer’s team are reading this, they can have my idea for free.
Malcolm
Below: Unofficial Video (using official images)
Links to Malcolm’s Titanic II pages on:
Titanic II News 