Culture

This $380m UK Ship Could Be Called RRS Boaty McBoatface, Because The Internet

Internet 101: we're all idiots.

by Meg Watson  21 March 2016

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My great-grandfather had a rule about driving which was often passed along in our family: assume everyone else on the road is an idiot. It’s a handy idiom; one which has guided me towards the brake extra early as some jerk glides through a stop sign, on more than one occasion. And, in the past few years especially, I’ve found that the expression can also be applied to most other facets of life. Especially the internet.

This month, the Natural Environment Research Council announced the launch of a new polar research vessel: “the largest and most advanced research ship yet”. Designed to carry scientists to Antarctica and around the Arctic, the ship cost an enormous £200m (AUD$380m) and as such, the organisation figured it deserved an inspirational and exciting name. Adorably suggesting things like “a local historical figure, movement, or landmark”, they opened a #NameOurShip competition up to the internet. Witness the world’s most beautiful car crash:

Other names picking up momentum on the site include RRS Pingu, RRS Ice Ice Baby, and RRS Boat Marley and the Whalers. There has been so much interest in the competition the site has been crashing all weekend, but most of that traffic has likely been directed solely towards James Hand’s suggestion of RRS Boaty McBoatface. It currently has more than 23,000 votes.

Importantly, the NERC reserve the right to pick their own name in the terms and conditions of the competition making this whole thing fairly redundant. But that doesn’t dwarf the enormity of this moment for the British people. Over the past few days this news has made it all over local newspapers causing a confusing mixture of pride and shame across the nation. On the one hand, the suggestion is generating unprecedented interest and engagement in local scientific endeavour; on the other, everything else.

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You can vote or suggest your own name here, if that’s a thing you’d like to do with your life.