Critics slam floating hotel designed to look like sinking Titanic
A floating hotel, designed to look like the Titanic as it was sinking, has been criticised for being in poor taste.
The Sun reports that the Titanic Sinking Boutique Hotel in Liverpool's Salthouse Dock has an uplifted 'stern' and slanting porthole windows with three propellers clear of the water, to give the impression that the ship is sinking.
The Liverpool Echo reports that there's even a jagged edge at the cabin's bow end, because the doomed liner snapped in half as it sank. There are also just two black funnels on top of the ship, instead of four, to reference the fact that the Titanic broke into two pieces.
An advertising board describes it as a "themed apartment hotel" which has "state of the art bedrooms" and a "luxury ballroom" with an "AA five star rating".
John Wilson, chief executive of Liverpool Seafarers' Centre, Crosby, told the Liverpool Echo: "This is in very poor taste, especially for those still actively involved in seafaring, the huge retired community of Merseyside seafarers and relatives of those lost on Titanic."
Mr Wilson told the BBC that the hotel's location was one of his main concerns. Liverpool was the headquarters of the White Star Line, the shipping company which owned Titanic.
However, BBC News reports that owner Alfie Bubbles, a former merchant seaman, says that he has had an overwhelmingly positive response and never intended to cause offence.
He told BBC News: "You have got to get things in perspective, it is not in poor taste at all, it is a bit of fun.
"I am an ex-merchant seaman myself and I would never ever dream of causing any disrespect to any merchant seaman, whether it be something to do with the Titanic or any other merchant sea or Royal Navy disaster.
"It is just an optical illusion of the way it looks in the water."
The Titanic Sinking Boutique Hotel is due to open next week and Mr Bubbles says that he already has many advance bookings.
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