Wednesday, March 20, 2024

It worked so well the first time...

You have to hand it to this Australian billionaire, Clive Palmer. For more than ten years, he has been has been sailing along, trying to build Titanic II.

You might have heard of Titanic #1. It sank in 1912 while over 2,200 people checked their tickets for the part that said the ship was unsinkable. It made for a nice movie, though many people believe it was a made-up tale, but it was all true – and it gave us Young and Restless fans a chance to see Eric Braeden step away from the the exec offices at Newman Enterprises and play John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt  Astor, a really rich guy who drowned in the wreck.   


Palmer (I really wish his first name were "Bob" or "Wade") has tried launching this plan in 2012, and again in 2018, and now here he is again to see what will happen when the ship hits the fan in 2024. Let's hope he can keep his plans afloat.

The original sinker carried the flag of the White Star Line; Palmer is calling his company Blue Star Line, because fate loves to be toyed with. Plans are to get this vessel underway in June 2027.

 

Palmer tries again


And speaking of Eric Braeden...He wrote his autobiography ("I'll Be Damned") in 2017. In the book, he mentions that he was one of the survivors of the sinking of the German transport ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff, which was torpedoed by Russian subs in 1945. The Gustloff was transporting evacuated civilians, military personnel, and technicians as part of Operation Hannibal. That operation, in the closing months of World War II, brought over 1,500,000 refugees from ports in East Prussia safer shores in Germany. The future actor was not quite four at the time. Some 9,400 people died on the Gustloff.

 







 

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