Palmer looked elsewhere for inspiration. If built, his Titanic would be the fourth Titanic replica to exist. The first two were built in the landlocked towns of Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, as tourism magnets. Both were constructed as half-scale replicas and only the front half of the ship. As of the publication of this book, the third Titanic replica is still under construction on the banks of the Qijiang River in Sichuan Province, China, where it will be the centerpiece of a new seven-star resort and amusement park known as the Romandisea Seven Star International Cultural Tourism Resort. The rural area around it has little tourism, but the Titanic—ever the reliable draw—is designed for international appeal. Still, its most frequent customers are likely to be Chinese tourists, who have been uniquely enchanted by the Titanic story since its Hollywood treatment. In 2012, after James Cameron’s film was released in 3-D, the box-office haul in China was four times bigger than in America. The Romandisea Titanic, as it will be known, will be permanently moored. It will never move and never sail, which makes it more of a boat-shaped hotel than a working ship. There will be no boilers or navigation equipment, no telegraph, no crew, and no working lifeboats. It will also never sink.

  Sinking is synonymous with the Titanic, and Palmer thought his ship needed at least the potential to sink. That would make his authentic and also more dangerous, which he imagined would be its biggest draw. In 2013, Palmer told an interviewer that seeing the Titanic was easy, but sailing on the Titanic and feeling the sense of opulence, merriment, and risk of ocean peril would be the stuff of bucket lists.

  Despite Palmer’s promise, it’s hard to imagine the Titanic II ever rolling off a dry dock into the sea. In 2013, Palmer vowed that the ship would be done by 2016. In 2016, he said he needed two more years. Two years later, construction had yet to start. The project seemed stuck in a familiar loop of financial difficulties and legal squabbles. Investors were attracted to a project that seemed exciting before realizing it was a pipe dream built on fuzzy math and unrealistic expectations. After its hypothetical launch, the Titanic II would be instantly dwarfed by modern cruise ships with flashy un-Victorian amenities like water slides and skydiving simulators. A few people might like to dress up and pretend they’re living in 1912, but would thousands of people? And if they did, on a ship with limited electricity, no TVs, and certainly no Wi-Fi, what would today’s smartphone-addicted travelers do on days two, three, and four, after the novelty wore off and seasickness set in? Worst of all, the small number of cabins relative to today’s ships would make ticket prices ten times higher than the average cruise vacation. Was a Titanic knock-off worth it?

  Palmer is often labeled the Australian Donald Trump, a bravado-fueled businessman who has gotten further than his critics admit and who has failed more than his supporters believe. His record in business and politics is long enough to choose your own narrative. He is also, oddly, married to a much younger woman from Eastern Europe.

  But Palmer also embodies a certain desperado I had come to know. A man who perennially longed to be taken seriously and, after a lifetime of overpromising and underdelivering, never quite was.

  Like Charles Smith, Palmer was a master of earthly engineering who wanted to leverage his experience in mining into an even grander idea. And he had early success, to the point that strangers wrote him checks and lined up to be his first customers.

  Like Jack Grimm, Palmer was a man of almost limitless means. He learned early in life the power of a gimmick and the truth in P. T. Barnum’s maxim that the world is full of suckers. Palmer, like Grimm, wasn’t looking to pay to bring back the Titanic. His money was an investment that the Titanic would eventually pay him. He was a prospector first and last, and the Titanic was a well that never ran dry.

  Most of all, Palmer resembled Doug Woolley. For one, he was extraordinarily difficult to reach. I spent weeks working every angle to find Palmer. I talked to reporters who covered him, an investor who sued him; I even asked a real estate agent who once sold Palmer’s daughter a house. A friend finally told me that Palmer was defeated and tired. After another embarrassing episode when Palmer bought millions of doses of a Covid-fighting drug that turned out to be mostly worthless, he began to fade back. A man hungry for endless attention seemed finally to have had enough.

  But the Titanic II was still on, the friend told me. And sure enough, when I emailed the managing director of the project, I received a reply that the team was “overwhelmed with the support and encouragement from fans and supporters around the world.”

  This was also classic Woolley. A sense that, despite all odds and all evidence, the great promise hadn’t come undone. It was still coming together.

  Long gone is the grand ship that once sailed and sunk. The wreck will disappear, too. The final iteration will be as a character in the mind, a name notable only because it’s been repeated as a relic of something that once meant something but doesn’t anymore. After the full story of the ship is written, the oddest part will turn out to be not that it sank, but that sinking actually lengthened its life.

  The Titanic lengthened Doug Woolley’s life, too. “The only reason I’m still alive is because of the Big T,” he told me. At every point he can remember, his life had purpose because of the ship. And in the off years, when momentum would flag or another person stole the limelight, something would always happen or someone would show up and spark new energy for him to forge ahead.

  It was self-fulfilling, of course, and a bit sentimental. But if it worked, who can judge? Many have, and many more will, but Woolley got what he came for: the adventure of a lifetime, with him at the helm.

  Acknowledgments

  In the process of writing this book, I came across the astounding statistic that somewhere around 90 percent of every item we encounter in our daily lives came to us, at one point or another, on a ship. As someone who can’t handle even a canoe ride without getting seasick, my first thanks goes to people who crisscross oceans to make modern life possible.

  My intrepid agent, Lauren Sharp, helped spark the idea for this book. And my eagle-eyed editor, Brent Howard, fueled it with enthusiasm, thoughtful questions, and good advice, including that I finish it before my son arrived. “It’ll be harder after,” he said. (He was right.) Evelyn Duffy was the editorial find of a lifetime who arrived at the perfect moment to laugh at (and then delete) my nautical puns, Andrea Monagle deftly helped fine-tune the final drafts, and Grace Layer at Dutton steered this top-heavy dinner cruiser through the narrow canal of production. Matt Twombly is the talented creator of this book’s maps and diagrams. And unless you’re friends with my mom or my mother-in-law, you’re probably reading this because Jamie Knapp is so ridiculously good at marketing books.

  I picked up loads of information from seasoned maritime and shipping experts. Bill Thiesen with the U.S. Coast Guard walked me through ship design and engineering, and Joe Mazraani and Jennifer Sellitti took time away from arresting shipwrecks to explain what it means to arrest shipwrecks. Parks Stephenson was, again and again, my ambassador to the Titanic underworld.

  I met many people who spend their lives protecting our oceans. Bob Schwemmer is my local marine archaeologist in California, and he’s also one of the best in the world. Chris Goldblatt with the Fish Reef Project helped me navigate through artificial reefs, as did Jonna Engel with the California Coastal Commission and Jordan Byrum with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. Jordan gave me the excellent advice to call Tim Mullane, the wreck scuttler, who, like all of these people, rarely gets recognized unless he screws up.

  Ian MacLeod could talk for hours about ship corrosion, and we often did. Linda Elkins-Tanton was confused but good-natured about why a book about shipwrecks needed an interplanetary geologist. Alana Fossa was the cheerful voice that answered the day I called the corrosion hotline (which, if you have a question about galvanization, is 720-554-0900). Charlie Carmona at Guild Labs was my guide to the value of buried treasure. Chris and Allison Selman fueled one of my favorite stories in this book, about their herculean efforts to halt the decay of historic wrecks. And that’s to say nothing of the lawyers. I actually had the harebrained idea while writing the sections about salvage law that I’d acquire an old wreck of my own, a bit like Doug Woolley, that I could use to impress people at cocktail parties—until I talked to Scott Bluestein, Chris Johnson, and Richard Bertram, who explained that with all the liabilities involved, this was a terrible idea. I still think it’d be cool, but my wife thanks them.

  I’ll always be indebted to the archivists and librarians who fuel nonfiction writing, especially Connie Carter, the patron saint of America’s public archives, and Stephanie Marcus at the Library of Congress. Peggy Ann Brown helped me dig, as did Bethany Williams at History Colorado. This work benefited from the work of generations of Titanic and wreck scholars. My deepest thanks are to Steve Biel, John Wilson Foster, Steven Spignesi, and the master of the disaster, Walter Lord.

  Doug Woolley was one of the richest and kindest subjects I’ve ever followed. He and his friends—Gary Frank Amphlett Smith, David Simpson, Kamran Ashraf, Rajinder “Tiger” Singh, Adam Magson, and Dolly Brill—helped at every stage of this book. Everyone should want a posse like Doug’s. Mine includes Andy Carmona, Liz Flock, Dan Berg, Josh Cohen, Ella Al-Shamahi, and Spencer Millsap. Thanks to Jaclyn Cohen for the “Tea-Tanic” steeper. And Adam Gerber for, among everything else, the title.

  I wrote this book while hunkered down during the pandemic thanks to the Georgia hospitality of my world-class in-laws, Julie, Robert, and Winston Ford. My mom, Arlene, is the perennial wind at my back, and my dad, Ron, is my best book marketer. My sister, Karen, is a ray of light bright enough to reach the deepest ocean.

  And finally my core: Charlie, the most loyal writing assistant; Alanna, my favorite person to dream with; and Micah, who got here just in time.

  Notes

  This is a work of nonfiction, which makes it subject to hard facts and archival sourcing. This is more complicated than it sounds in the world of shipwrecks, a field prone to looping debates, dark mysteries, ceaseless conspiracies, and extreme opinions. What’s more, when it comes to older wrecks, deciding whose recollections to believe can be like calling balls and strikes with your eyes closed. Do I trust the account of the person who was on the ship, or the scientist who studied the wreck a century later using modern technology? In general, I’ve included both, but I gave eyewitnesses priority. I also relied heavily on the public record in contemporaneous newspapers and books. Anything within quotes I took from an official source or interview.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  an incredible three million: UNESCO, Section of Museums and Cultural Objects, Division of Cultural Objects and Intangible Heritage, The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, CLT/CIH/MCO/2007/PI/38, UNESCO, 2007.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  more than thirty miles per hour: Walter Lord, The Night Lives On: New Thoughts, Theories, and Revelations About the Titanic (London: Penguin Books, 1998).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  PROLOGUE

  Cold temperatures produce flakes: Kenneth G. Libbrecht, “A Guide to Snowflakes,” SnowCrystals.com, February 1, 1999, accessed June 28, 2021, http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/class/class-old.htm.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  John Thomas Towson, a scientist: John Thomas Towson, Practical Information on the Deviation of the Compass: For the Use of Masters and Mates of Iron Ships (London: J. D. Potter, 1882).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  “iceberg alley”: U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, International Ice Observation and Ice Patrol in the North Atlantic Ocean (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2004), 58.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  For three years the icy mass: Alasdair Wilkins, “What Happened to the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic?” Wired, April 16, 2012, https://www.wired.com/2012/04/titanic-iceberg-history/.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Icebergs had struck ships as long: Brian T. Hill, “Ship Collision with Iceberg Database,” Institute for Ocean Technology, National Research Council Canada (2005), 3.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  they grow top-heavy and flip: Melissa Wiley, “An Iceberg Flipped Over, and Its Underside Is Breathtaking,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 22, 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/photographer-captures-stunning-underside-flipped-iceberg-180953951.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  CHAPTER 1: SHIPFALL

  Ocean waves lifted the ship and slammed it on the rocks: Author unknown, “Account of a Shipwreck, 1693,” British Library, https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item104343.html.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  “Our ship at last sunk quite down”: “Account of a Shipwreck, 1693.”

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Chamnan, who for the rest of his life: Donald Richie, “An Ambassador’s Wild Tale of the Wilderness,” Japan Times, February 22, 2004.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Flooding is the most common reason: Ajay Menon, “Why Ships Sink—10 Major Reasons,” Marine Insight, last updated August 25, 2021, https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/why-ships-sink-10-major-reasons.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  “Imagine the headlines if even a single 747”: Susan Casey, The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 11.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Seven Stones Reef: Richard Larn and Bridget Larn, Shipwreck Index of the British Isles: East Coast of England: Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland (London: Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1997).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Kenn Reefs east of Australia: Jack K. Loney, Australian Shipwrecks, vol. 5 (Portarlington, Australia: Marine History Publications, 1986).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  rocky straits of Lombok: “Where Are the Best Places to Go Wreck Diving in Indonesia?,” Two Fish Divers, January 31, 2019, https://www.twofishdivers.com/2019/01/wreck-diving-indonesia.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  In the span of eight days in August of 2010: Details of the August 7, 2010, collision of MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-III can be found at http://www.fortunes-de-mer.com/old/rubriques/liens%20et%20contacts/detailsactualites/MSC_Chitra_2010.htm.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  a delicate name like Belle Rose: Brian Clark Howard, “Photos Reveal Ship Damage to Coral Reef in Shark Sanctuary,” National Geographic, June 23, 2016, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/belle-rose-ship-damages-coral-reef-shark-sanctuary-malapascua-philippines.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  The ship was so asymmetrically designed: Greta Franzen, The Great Ship Vasa (New York: Hastings House, 1971).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  result of liquefaction: Dave Petley, “Dynamic Liquefaction: A Mass Movement That Can Sink Ships,” The Landslide Blog, September 3, 2018, accessed June 29, 2021, https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2018/09/03/dynamic-liquefaction-ships.

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  the Hui Long, a midsize cargo vessel: Michael Munro and Abbas Mohajerani, “Liquefaction Incidents of Mineral Cargoes on Board Bulk Carriers,” Advances in Materials Science and Engineering (2016).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  the SS City of Glasgow disappeared: Colin G. Pooley, Mobility, Migration and Transport: Historical Perspectives (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  The SS Naronic: Ronald Rompkey, ed., Labrador Odyssey: The Journal and Photographs of Eliot Curwen on the Second Voyage of Wilfred Grenfell, 1893 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  Icebergs were such a common scourge: Brian T. Hill, “Ship Collision with Iceberg Database,” Institute for Ocean Technology, National Research Council Canada (2005).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  junk ship Tek Sing: Nigel Pickford and Michael Hatcher, The Legacy of the Tek Sing: China’s Titanic—Its Tragedy and Its Treasure (Cambridge, UK: Granta Editions, 2000).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  munitions ship Mont-Blanc: John U. Bacon, The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism (New York: William Morrow, 2017).

  GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT

  New York Times renting out: Rick Musser, “The 1910s,” History of American Journalism, last updated December 31, 2007, accessed June 29, 2021, https://history-journalism.ku.edu/1910/1910.shtml.