Back in March, the U.K.’s Natural Environmental Research Center ran a public poll to help choose a name for its new $200,000,000 ship. Thousands of people weighed in with suggestions. “Boaty McBoatface” quickly took the lead, and ultimately won the poll by a landslide.
But the will of the people has been overruled, and the vessel, which will set sail in 2019, won’t be named Boaty McBoatface. Because of fascism, and also because the official terms of the NERC poll said it was looking for “suggestions.”
Instead, this morning the NERC announced on Twitter that the ship will be named after famed English broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough. (Mr. Attenborough, if you’re reading this, would you be down to change your name to Boaty McBoatface?)
While it’s not exactly a multimillion-dollar bright red boat, the NERC did throw the internet a bone with an announcement that it is christening this undersea vehicle with the web’s chosen name.
Welcome to the world, Boaty.
