UK – The official name of the new Antarctic survey vessel worth nearly $300 million and owned by the Natural Environment Research Council could be humorously named Boaty McBoatface.
Thanks to the UK for putting the name of its newest vessel for an online voting, the front-runner up until now, Boaty McBoatface has outmatched possible names such as Henry Worsley, It’s bloody cold out there or Notthetitanic.
The man responsible for submitting Boaty McBoatface, a communications manager, has apologized since the name is very unlikely to disappear. However, as the Internet can be the place for people to unleash their anger, there could’ve been worse options gaining popularity for the vessel’s name.
The dimwitted name has not only doubled the amount of votes in comparison with the name coming up in second place, but was able to collect almost 10 times as many as Henry Worsley, which is second in the voting for the vessel’s name. The name proposed by a communications manager in the UK gained such popularity on social media that Boaty McBoatface even got its own Twitter hashtag and was a trending topic for hours.
As of now, Boaty has earned over 21,000 votes, so it seems that the new polar research ship will get a name taken out of a morning kids show. The online voting for the childish name has not put a smile on NERC scientists, as they were looking for a name more suitable for a state-of-the-art ship such as the $290 million vessel.
The UK’s twisted sense of humor
When the poll to let people decide which name was more suitable for the UK’s new multi-million dollars research vessel started on Thursday, scientists at NERC expected the name of an explorer o adventurer, like Henry Worsley or Sir Ernest Shackleton. The deadline for the choosing of the polar research vessel has been set for April 16, said the NERC.
The Natural Environment Research Council had asked the public to come with an inspirational name that could be able to reflect the ship’s mission, said NERC scientists.
Yet, the Internet is not very reliable when expecting people to take things seriously, as more than 27,000 people had vote to name the polar research ship ‘RRS Boaty McBoatface’.
Although the name could be more suitable for a rubber ducky for children’s bath time, the RRS Boaty McBoatface is not only an extremely expensive high-tech research vessel, but it was also designed to explore the coldest regions on the planet. The polar research ship will be prepared by 2019 and is set to sail the waters of Antarctica and the Arctic.
Source: The Guardian