The Titanic should be re-built at its yard of original construction, Harland and Wolff in Belfast, where all the plans and patterns are still preserved. This would be a fantastic project, guaranteed to catch international public interest and revive the fortunes of the great yard.
Obviously this would cost a lot of money, but Famous Last Rivets will take care of that. There are 3 million rivets available, each waiting to receive an individual, miniature inscription, stamped into its head, after it has been securely hammered into place.
I estimate (completely off the top of my head) 300 million dollar construction cost, meaning that rivets need to sold at an average price of 100 each.
With a starting price of just 30 dollars for a below the water line site, rising to 500 for a more prominent position, owning a piece of the most famous ship that ever sailed, is quite affordable.
Each contributor would receive a certificate of fractional ownership, along with a chart mapping the position of their own unique rivet. They would also be entitled to a discounted ticket on the luxury liner's re-born maiden voyage.-- xenzag, Jan 22 2008 Titanic http://www.titanic-.../MGY_Tech_Facts.htmstatistics [xenzag, Jan 22 2008] Titanic flaulty rivets http://www.csititanic.com/media-abc.phpone of a number of sites that discuss the metal used in the rivets [xenzag, Jan 23 2008] Titanic Pics http://www.euronet....eesree/construc.htmmost excellent set of photographs [xenzag, Jan 23 2008] Titanic's Prime Mover http://www.encyclop...ic_prime_mover.html [angel, Jan 23 2008] The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust http://www.a1steam.com/help3.html"We have found that many people wish to support the construction of the locomotive by providing the finance for a specific part. A Dedicated Donation gives them the opportunity to do so." [angel, Jan 23 2008] Titanic II http://www.cnbc.com...t-sail-in-2018.htmlComing sooner than you thought. Without rivets, though. [lurch, Feb 11 2016] Statue of Titanic's captain in Lichfield https://upload.wiki...org.uk_-_403721.jpg..local guy screws up spectacularly etc [not_morrison_rm, Feb 12 2016] So, let's see - "It wa a major disaster the first time round, so let's rebuild it!" Sounds like a strategy from the Bush team.
Though I can't help but feel that the Airbus A-380 is a new Titanic in the making. One of those goes down, jammed to the gills economy style, and it could easily match the death toll.-- DrCurry, Jan 22 2008 Sounds good to me. We are going the same way as the Greeks - we'll end up worshipping our ancestors who had the balls and talent to do great things like Concorde, moon-landings, The Titanic and the Sinclair Black Watch.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 22 2008 I like the idea of the rivet sponsorship, but maybe it could be used to build a new ship rather than rebuild an old one?-- dbmag9, Jan 22 2008 There's plenty of money to build new ships already, though.
The Titanic cost about £1.5 million to build at the time, which is something like £600 million (or $1.2 billion) today, at a straight conversion.
I suspect that many things are relatively cheaper now (eg, through automation and heavy machinery). On the other hand, things involving craftsmanship will be relatively more expensive.
A modern cruise ship of similar size would cost about £100 million (200 million in Monopoly money), and I'd guess that three times that amount would be a low estimate for a Titanic replica, if it were a true replica.
On balance, therefore, somewhere around £500m or $1bn is probably closer to the mark.
Incidentally, the rivets would be priced in sterling, not dollars.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 22 2008 The British love a failure, especiially a spectacular one. Captain Scott, Isandlwhana, the Somme, the Milennium Dome. We say, "Go for it !"-- 8th of 7, Jan 22 2008 ....discovering America....-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 22 2008 I figured the cost in dollars because of the great interest in all things Titanic from the American market.-- xenzag, Jan 22 2008 ...trying to keep America...-- phoenix, Jan 23 2008 While you're at it you could sell naming rights for icebergs floating around in the North Atlantic.-- saxman, Jan 23 2008 //"It wa a major disaster the first time round, so let's rebuild it!"//Let's get this straight. Titanic did not sink because she was poorly designed or poorly built. She sank because she was skippered by an arrogant Captain. Certainly there were some shortcomings in her design but they no more caused her to sink than a cheap stereo caused Princess Diana's Mercedes to crash.-- angel, Jan 23 2008 Actually it seems like one of the main contributory causes of the demise of the Titanic was the German metal used in the rivets, which has been subsequently proved to be flawed. This resulted in many rivets popping out under stress, and opening the long gash that crossed a number of bulkheads. (see link) The NEW Titanic will of course address this issue, along with several other design flaws, and will be a most excellent and beautiful vessel.-- xenzag, Jan 23 2008 All that accepted, but had it not been for the Captain's inaction she wouldn't have hit the iceberg in the first place, and when she did, it's doubtful that she would have survived much longer than she did. Remember also that she carried only half as many lifeboats as necessary. Incidentally, her rudder and stern frame were built about half a mile from my house.-- angel, Jan 23 2008 <somewhat irrelevant pub-style aside> Apparently, had the captain had his thinking cap on, he could have saved everyone in one of two ways. (a) he had plenty of time to sail aft (reversewards) towards another ship which they could see on the horizon; the ship would have had to be abandoned no sooner than if he'd stayed in place, and they would have reached, or been very close to, the second ship by the time they had to abandon. (b) they could have used the ship's loading cranes to transfer passengers, blankets etc onto the iceberg itself; they had plenty of time, and the necessary ability to maneuver, to do so, and the iceberg would have provided a stable if chilly haven where everyone could have survived. </sipsa>-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 23 2008 Re your (a): it's been shown that Titanic was at least ten miles from Californian, and it's unlikely that she would have survived long enough to reach. On top of which, her turbine didn't operate in reverse, and the reciprocating engines were intended only for low-speed manouvering.-- angel, Jan 23 2008 //Re your (a)// Well, that's the problem with bub-style asides. My understanding was that the central engine (which scavenged low-pressure steam from the others) was the non- reversible maneuvering engine, and that the main engines could give a decent turn of speed in reverse. In the time available they could have limped a good many miles. At any rate, the time they spent sitting around before abandoning ship could have been used to get them closer to a rescuer, and would have been better spent than just sitting there pondering and signalling.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 23 2008 UB: I'm guessing you haven't seen the designs for stand-up seats. 747s didn't carry nearly so many passengers as they do now, when they first started out. MB: Likewise, many deaths would theoretically have been averted had Tower 2 of the World Trade Center been evacuated immediately. It's always easy to come up with disaster mitigation with hindsight, the trick is to do it at the time, or preferably ahead of time. One straightforward way to avoid air disasters is not to put so many people in one plane, or so many planes in the sky.-- DrCurry, Jan 23 2008 [MB], see (linky) for more than you will ever need to know about Titanic's engines.-- angel, Jan 23 2008 Guildford Cathedral was partially subsidised by selling bricks to pilgrims, locals and anyone else they could persuade to buy them. For a small donation you could buy a brick, write your name on it in chalk and hand it to the brickies for laying.
The insides of the walls have thousands of names on them still.-- wagster, Jan 23 2008 Why stop at rivets? Each room could have a name in addition to its number, the engines could be named (I would imagine that most ship engines are nicknamed by the engineers anyway). Lifeboats, deckchairs.-- marklar, Jan 23 2008 <makes a bolt for the door>-- 4whom, Jan 23 2008 Fool that I am, it's just occurred to me that a project very similar to this is being undertaken not 100 yards from my home. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust are, for reasons best known to themselves, building the first new main line steam locomotive to be built in UK for nearly 50 years. The venture is being funded partly by individuals sponsoring a part (linky). So pretty much baked in concept, though obviously not widely known to be so.-- angel, Jan 23 2008 If we're going to rebuild the Titanic, can we do the Hindenburg while we're at it?-- zen_tom, Jan 23 2008 And the Tower of Babel?-- theleopard, Jan 23 2008 And the Mega Pie?-- Jinbish, Jan 23 2008 And Mount St. Helens?-- globaltourniquet, Jan 23 2008 And the American sub-prime lending market?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 23 2008 And Kurt Cobain?-- theleopard, Jan 23 2008 As indeed do annotations.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 23 2008 Yes, people will rush to be the first on a replica of a ship that sank on its first voyage... I think this is a good idea! (Well, if its the exact same plans...)-- cpf, Jan 24 2008 So we need to hurry while there's still icebergs?-- lurch, Jan 24 2008 //Though I can't help but feel that the Airbus A-380 is a new Titanic in the making.//
Or as Amy Poller on SNL said, it landed in New York, "completing its trans-Atlantic tap dance on the razor's edge of insanity"-- nomocrow, Jan 24 2008 It's not the "larger plane" it's the "inadequately designed and debugged die-by-wire system" that bothers passengers.....-- 8th of 7, Jan 24 2008 People to the east of the Atlantic hear more of Airbus' PR, those on the west hear more of Boeing's.-- marklar, Jan 27 2008 ahem....(assumes schoolish posture) the idea is about a scheme to fund the re-building of the Titanic, not a Boeing versus Airbus debate. I'm moving all your free rivet allocations to the bilge area as punishment.-- xenzag, Jan 27 2008 \\Though I can't help but feel that the Airbus A-380 is a new Titanic in the making. One of those goes down, jammed to the gills economy style, and it could easily match the death toll.\\ Far fewer icebergs.
A bun for the concept. I'd give another if I could for avoiding any puns based on the word 'riveting'.-- hidden truths, Jan 27 2008 I'd want to travel with my family and I'm not sure we could fit, comfortably, on a rivet.-- Arcana, Jan 27 2008 We belive the jury may still be out on that one. Check back after the next major War of Religion.-- 8th of 7, Jan 27 2008 If I bought a rivet would I get sued when the new titanic sinks?-- jhomrighaus, Jan 27 2008 Although I would have plenty of dancing room, Aquinas made no mention of the family of angels. The difference between the point of a pin and the head of a rivet may provide adequate margin for a wife and five cats.-- angel, Jan 27 2008 // Aquinas made no mention of the family of angels //
One of the many things he convenently kept quiet about.
// may provide adequate margin for a wife and five cats //
Location, location, location.....-- 8th of 7, Jan 27 2008 //Have Americans still got the jitters about September 11 to such an extent?//
I'm not sure. I think it was supposed to be a joke.-- nomocrow, Jan 28 2008 "Hurry, Charlotte...you know we must be abord in ten minutes...we can barely make it if we leave immediately."
"Oh, Daddy, you know I positively despise these long sea voyages. And why do we have to take this replica of that one that sank all those decades ago. Do they have replica bathtubs rather than modern showers?"
"Charlotte, my dearest....we must be among the first to travel on this first voyage of the new museum ship...take up your hem, darling, it's about to drag on that wet floor....we will be reliving a long bygone era."
"Oh, would that be the era when women were treated like slaves...men owned them like they owned cattle?"
"Charlotte, you simply must quit being so negative. didn't you see that move about this great ship's first voyage in those days....Were you not romantically charmed by it all?"
"Yes, quite charmed and quite chilled, thank you....did the people who built this replica include enough life boats for everyone, this time?"
"Darling, the design is an exact replica...right down to the number of life boats.........they have a modern, small, "Life ship" that will follow along with all the modern necessary survival gadgets. The lifeship will sail behind, just over the horizon and will be there to give us any assistance in the very unlikely event the ship should come into disaster."
"will we have radar and modern navigation devices?..will we be sailing into ice fields on this first voyage? Will we steam along at a much more reasonable speed for sailing through iceburgs? Will we have people at the helm who will follow instructions this time, should any emergency maneuver be required?"
"You truly do read too much, don't you, my dear?
"Please, hurry now...The Captain has assured me every precaution has been prepared for...he personally told me this ship is practically unsinkable. Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong."-- Blisterbob, Jan 28 2008 Nicely written [Blisterbob].-- xenzag, Jan 28 2008 It looks like we need to put up a standardized Halfbakery disclaimer on some ideas:"THIS IDEA IS INTENDED AS HUMOR. ACTUALIZATION WILL RESULT IN INJURY, DEATH, LIABILITY AND RIDICULE."
Yeah, they're doing Titanic II. With welded bulkheads and more lifeboats and period-appropriate attire.
Remember: the bounds of human stupidity are only there to be exceeded.-- lurch, Feb 11 2016 Linky to one of Lichfield's famous citizens statue, "Iceberg? What effing iceburg?" etc-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 12 2016 random, halfbakery