18ft-long shipbuilders' replica of the Titanic likely to fetch more than £1m

Shipbuilders at Harland and Wolff worked with US modelmakers on a scale replica of the Titanic, which is expected to fetch more than a million pounds.

The model took seven years to build using original plans and measurements from the ship which hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers.

The 1:48 replica is more than 18feet (5.5m) long, weighs 1,500lb (680kg) and is held together by more than 3.3 million rivets. It is lit by eight miles of fibreoptic cable and is an exact copy, even down to the wood used for the deck furniture.

Harland and Wolff, the company that built the original liner, helped craftsmen at Fine Art Models, releasing detailed documents on the ship's construction for the first time.

The end result was completed in 2002 when it began a tour of US museums and public galleries. It is now available to buy online and is expected to fetch about £1.3 million.

The original Titanic was designed by the Harland and Wolff chairman William Pirrie, the designer Thomas Andrews, and the general manager Alexander Carlisle. Construction began in 1909 and by the time of its launch three years later the supposedly unsinkable vessel was the world's largest passenger carrier.

Source: timesonline.co.uk