They can name it whatever they want, that ship has been recorded as "Boaty McBoatface" to my memory.
Also really kudos to them, Boaty McBoatface made everyone smile when they heard the name and got them interested; Sir David Attenborough however... doesn't make that effect.
I think they missed a trick really, calling the ship Boaty McBoatface would have given the opportunity to keep people engaged with the work they're doing. Think of the children's animated series, books, duvet covers, so much marketing potential while reinforcing the value of scientists (think Captain Planet for the Antarctic). Whimsy isn't necessarily inane or stupid.
I think whatever this ship ultimately ends up being called, it is going to be forever more informally referred to as Boaty McBoatface by anyone who goes near it, or to who has call to reference it.
This will probably happen anyway. Research ships are manned by researchers (usually of the non-bureaucratic variety) and in my experience are game for a laugh. Regardless of what it gets officially named, this ship will almost certainly be unofficially referred to as Boaty McBoatface by its crew.
(And as another commenter who is familiar with the project internals pointed out - they already do call it McBoatface)
> But despite the poll doing the impossible and uniting the country's electorate, the Natural Environment Research Council rejected the result and dubbed the ship RRS Sir David Attenborough after the renowned TV naturalist, in an effort to spare its blushes. The Boaty McBoatface name was instead given to a yellow submarine aboard the ship.
I don't see much fun in that. The funny thing about getting the ship named Boaty McBoatface is that it would be painted on the ship and would be named as such in official documentation. The ability to casually refer to the ship by that name does exist, obviously, but how often do people refer to specific government ships by name anyway?
Hear hear. I'm going to pass on your suggestion to NERC and my children's schools if you don't mind. I think using Boaty as a focus for school science projects is a great idea.
And you're absolutely right, it's bloody un-British to refuse to name it Boaty. I mean, we won't do anything about it but there'll be a lot of tutting I'll be bound.
I'm also a bit sore that they removed the Spanish admiral as an entry. Not exactly fair play. Rather disappointing actually.
To see your name on a large ship you need to be old. It's the sort of thing for people who are well into retirement, if not recently deceased. Pick someone younger and you may look foolish should they become involved in something later. Given the public nature of the naming, they also want to go with someone popular. So they want an older person, who the public knows, and that has a history of doing something for the environment. Nobody else covers those three areas like Attenborough.
For anyone wondering, it's an homage to the winner of a poll the Brits conducted online for deciding the name of a research vessel: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36064659
Chevron had a policy of naming ships after living executives - although it quietly renamed the Condoleeza Rice to something less political in 2001.
With respect to Attenborough, the RRS David Attenborough is a very unexciting choice and isn't going to do anything at all to raise the profile of environmental research.
Also really kudos to them, Boaty McBoatface made everyone smile when they heard the name and got them interested; Sir David Attenborough however... doesn't make that effect.
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