A Belfast man is behind the plan to build Titanic 2, named after the luxury liner which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Titanic Shipping Holdings Ltd plans to offer the contract for building the 96,000 tonne ship to the ailing Harland and Wolff Shipyard.

Ulster Titanic Society chairman Mark Blackburne has teamed up with South African entrepreneur Sarel Gous to raise the 360 million pounds needed to recreate the liner. The pair plan to sell shares in the new liner on the Stock Exchange, and if they can raise 10 million pounds they hope several banks will lend them up to half of the building costs.

"The Company has spent more than 10,000 thousand pounds on marketing and research and we think this is a very viable business propostion. Titanic"s name alone is worth its weight in gold," says Blackburne.

If the money can be raised, building work could start as soon as the autumn.

The new liner will be bigger and heavier than its namesake, but the company plans to reproduce its splendour and luxury. It will feature a permanent museum of items from the original ship and the grand staircase will be a replica of the original.

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Judge blocks company cutting into wreck! (16 August 2000)

A United States Federal judge has blocked a salvage company's plans to cut into the wreckage of the Titanic.

US District Judge J Calvitt Clarke Jr said as he issued the order in Norfolk, Virginia, that a recent management change at the salvage company raised concerns about what would happen to artefacts recovered from the wreck of the liner.

The judge issued the order on Friday, two days after the company, RMS Titanic, said that it was looking for lost diamonds worth $300 million.

He also repeated his ban on selling objects taken from the wreck. Last November, RMS Titanic shareholders fired the company's old managers and picked new ones who pledged to speed up the salvage operation!

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Special Irish Plaque Will Be Laid On Titanic! (18 July 2000)

A Special Irish Plaque will be laid on the Titanic Wreck in memory of the 1500 people who died on it. As a result, Two Irish divers will spend 18 hours at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The plaque will say simply in Gaelic:

"Go dtuga Dia suaimhneas siorai da nanamacha"

"May God take their souls into Heaven"

It will take Rory Golden and Sean O'Donnell more than two hours in a special submarine to descend two and a half miles to the Titanic wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic. They will then use a special robotic arm to manoeuvre the plaque in place on the bridge of the ill-fated liner.

The bronze plaque has been specially made in Cobh, Co. Cork. The Titanic docked at Cobh and picked up 123 more passengers before setting sail on her doomed voyage to America in 1912. Cobh and its architecture are both directly connected to the Titanic. The White Star Line building and the pier where people boarded are still in Cobh.

The two men have set up their headquarters on board a former Aran Islands ferry called Naom Eanna. And they will spend eight weeks in the area around Newfoundland, recovering artifacts and debris scattered around the wreck, before returning to Ireland in September.

Temperatures are freezing at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and the water pressure is 6,000lb per square inch!

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WebTitanic Editor | Karl Metelko
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