‘Boaty McBoatface’: Britain’s new polar research ship heads to open seas for tests
- The ship was officially named the Sir David Attenborough after the veteran BBC naturalist, but a 2016 online poll favoured the name Boaty McBoatface
- The state-of-the-art vessel left Liverpool for sea trials, and will be used for climate change research in the Arctic and Antarctic
Britain’s new polar ship, the Sir David Attenborough, headed for the open seas on Tuesday to start trials after a storm delay, before making its maiden voyage to Antarctica next year for climate change research.
The £200 million (US$260 million) state-of-the-art polar research vessel, with its red hull and a bright yellow crane on its stern, sailed past Liverpool’s historic docks and out into the sea, headed for north Wales.
Officially the ship is named after the veteran BBC naturalist, but to many Britons it will always be known as “Boaty McBoatface”, after that suggestion topped a public poll to name the vessel in 2016.
Its departure from Liverpool was delayed by around a week due to stormy weather, a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) spokeswoman said, with calm seas preferred to test and calibrate its specialist equipment for the first time.
It will remain at sea for just under a week before berthing in Holyhead, Wales, once the current Welsh coronavirus lockdown ends on November 9, the spokeswoman added.
The BAS will operate the ship, carrying out ice trials in the Arctic in early 2021 before a journey to the Antarctic in November next year, where scientists say it will transform British research in polar regions.