TITANIC....Replica / New build

I've posted on here previously about my concerns for the Medway Queen.

I think the preservation society have taken the shilling offered by the lottery people, who will only fund projects that can educate but want them as they were originally. They took the shilling to get the ship restored but gave no thought to what it's going to do after that, at least not that I can see.

I can't see a viable future for the ship alongside or occasional demonstration cruises with a skeleton crew; we have a terrible record of ship preservation and significant ships have been lost. Others are currently at risk due to lack of money too. A ship that can't sail because the owners took a decision to make it like that is in a sticky position.

A welded hull would have allowed her to meet SOLAS regs but of course wouldn't have been lottery funded because it's not the same as the original. So the choice was a ship that can't earn it's keep, or no ship at all because funds were not available for one that could.

I have a bit of sympathy for the preservationists, because once lost there's no coming back for the MQ. Look at PS Ryde for evidence.

I've very pleased we will be able to admire MQ in her glory. I'm just concerned that in a few years it all ends in tears and I don't want that to happen.

Just for interest, the lottery people would have wanted a business plan supplied when they were approached for funding. I wonder what that contained?

 

This strikes me as the imposition of rules well beyond the realms of sense. 'Rules are for the guidance of wise men...'??

Is there any possible way that derogation may be obtained?

 

None whatsoever !

Bob.

 

New SOLAS regulations saw many passenger ships have to be withdrawn in recent years, so no, derogation just won't happen.

 

Mental note: never get into passenger-carrying heritage shipping.

 

Good plan
Look at the hoops the Shieldhall folk, as a good example, have had to go through in recent times.

 

Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Not particularly related to Titanic, more general disasters and mass loss of life, but I just found this on Flickr.

 

SOLAS regs were the reason the QE2 was withdrawn, not because she wasn't making profits.

The cost of upgrading an old ship outweighs the earnings. So she sits in a hot country, still generating her own power and regularly maintained ready for use but she's unlikely to become any more that a static curio or hotel or similar. She could only sail with minimal crew so the last voyage probably will be her last voyage, if you're with me.

Despite being in full working order she can't sail. There was even a plan to sail her to South Africa as accommodation during the World Cup, but that went nowhere either. Sooner or later the owners will pull the plug, more's the pity.

So no, I can't see MQ getting any sympathy from officialdom.

 

I understand that the Costa Concordia complied with SOLAS regs. but they did not stop people dying!

 

True, but the loss of life there was very small and it remains to be seen how much is attributed to officer incompetence for the disaster in the first place compared to the low casualties that might be a result of SOLAS regs.

 

Didn't the rivets fail?
Better a static hotel/themed titanic replica in Harlands, would do wonders for Belfast tourism, perhaps all those things people have found in the ship could be sold to fund such a scheme or put back where they belong now.

 

Absolutely. The competence (or otherwise) of the Deck Officers, plus the training (or lack of it) for the crew in Emergency Procedures will be carefully scrutinised for certain. We must wait for the Official Report, which will, I am sure, be comprehensive.

 

"First voyage as the original; " originally wrote by Just_Sayin.

I hope not ,she sank !!!

Keith

 

Quite, but this is the point. You can make as many safety regs. as you like but human error will always go to nullify their effects!

 

A new Titanic eh? Like it. To be practical she'd need to be an oil burner or MV. Quite right-the new solas regs need to be the first consideration-but you could still get her to look right. Don't forget to specify the after funnel as a deck chair store.

Thing is Mr 'Sayin have you got the gumption to get this going and take it from words to action? Well...have you? Can you materialise the dream?

It can be done.

 

Best preserving the historic vessels what we have got left or indeed bringing QE2 home ....

Titanic is best remembered by history books etc, nothing can or ever well equal her. A modern all welded diesel driven copy that complies to the SOLAS regs would be a nothing more than cheap imitiation.

Stan

 

I'd love to see that collection one day. I remember reading about it in Steam World.

 

A friend has some cabin panelling and furniture that came out of the Olympic when it was broken up and the contents auctioned. Most, if not all, is stamped with the Harland & Wolf Job Number. So unless they swapped everything on the two ships around, I think this particular conspiracy theory can be safely dismissed.

 

Quite so-we have enough to be going on with.