Palmer was pretty hyped about the meeting with Harland & Wolff’s chairman, Russell Downs, and so nettled by the company’s last-minute cancellation, he was driven to characterise it as “some dirty deal in the making”.

Palmer is presumably publicising his rescue attempts to put pressure on the company and prompt the chairman to revisit his appointment book.

Our larger-than-life billionaire had planned to meet Downs in Belfast – a diversion from the Paris Olympics trip where he is knee-deep in supporting athletics, a passion spurred during his younger years as the recipient of a high school athletic scholarship.

Suffice it to say Palmer isn’t happy with Harland & Wolff’s rejection – one that could put an iceberg-sized hole in his latest campaign to build Titanic II.

According to Palmer: “These actions should raise alarm bells. It appears to me that the company and its advisers are not acting in the best interests of its shareholders. Are they working on a dirty deal that sells them out?”

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“There should be a government inquiry into Harland & Wolff,” Palmer asserted.

And Palmer is no stranger to hyperbole nor abnormal-sized aspirations.

Titanic II would be an exact replica of the ill-fated original – right down to the ballroom but with some additional luxuries such as Turkish baths.

Palmer has been pushing his Titanic dream for 14 years, but it was derailed in 2015 after he experienced financial pressure resulting from a fight with his former Chinese corporate partner Citic Pacific Mining and the collapse of his Queensland nickel refinery.

The Titanic project was revived in 2018 with a proposed sailing date of 2022. Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic blew up those plans.

These days, Palmer is the happy recipient of billions of dollars of royalties which bolster his coffers and enable him to indulge in any manner of unconventional projects.

He set up his own political party more than 10 years ago but left the federal parliament after two years, only to resurrect the party unsuccessfully in 2018.

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Palmer has numerous resorts, claims a $300 million car collection, 100 (yes, one hundred) homes, and an animatronic dinosaur theme park, Palmersaurus, located at his Coolum resort in Queensland and dubbed the “world’s largest dinosaur park.”

Announcing his reinvigorated campaign to build Titanic II earlier this year, he summed up his motivation, saying: “It’s a lot more fun to do the Titanic than it is to sit at home and count my money.”

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