"Hi, I'm the Internet, you must be new here …"
One of the world’s largest mobile research labs needs a name. The newly built, $300 million Antarctic survey vessel is scheduled to set sail soon — traveling some 19,000 miles (halfway around the world) before stopping — and UK’s Natural Environment Research Council has asked the Internet to help give it a respectable title.
“Hi, I’m the Internet, you must be new here …”
Three of the top four names currently in the running seem innocuous enough: RRS Henry Worsley, RSS David Attenborough and RRS Pillar Of Autumn — pretty “boaty” if you ask us. But the name that’s in the lead? By an overwhelming count? “RRS Boaty McBoatface.”
Per the contest site, the company asks for only 3 stipulations to consider when pitching a name for the boat:
"- We will apply to register the ship as a Royal Research Ship (RRS), so the name must be in the format RRS NAME.
– Secondly, we would like the name to be inspirational and about environmental and polar science, to help us tell everyone about the amazing work the ship does.
– Finally, we don't want it to be a name we have already used for one of our science ships (James Cook, Ernest Shackleton, Discovery and James Clark Ross)."
Extreme interest in the contest has even broken NERC’s servers, with voting currently down until they can figure out how to seal the gaping hole in the Internet they kind of asked for.
"Due to overwhelming interest, the Name Our Ship site is currently experiencing technical issues. We hope to have these resolved soon. Thank you for your continued support."
Which goes to show, maybe the heads behind this campaign really do spend too much time at sea and not enough time understanding the fascinating quirks the online sphere pulls out of people. Just ask Bill Cosby — he's well versed in it.
Though some outlets are reporting that NERC is in "crisis mode" right now because of the situation, we hope it isn't because they're hoping for another moniker. "Boaty McBoatface" has an exceptional ring to it and (if they're as smart as we think they are), the company can use the popularity of it to launch a PR campaign, reality show — hell just a simple Twitter account to update kids on the happenings of Antarctic research. This is all a good thing.
McBoatface for President 2016!
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