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Boaty McBoatface

You might remember it as RRS Sir David Attenborough naming

The archive has not found a surviving copy.

2016·The platform era·unexpected

A British research council asked the internet to name a polar research vessel, and learned what happens when you do that.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
RRS Sir David Attenborough naming
Spread in
2016
Began as
A web page
Where it started
web
Format
Event
Era
The platform era
Posted by
James Hand, a BBC Radio Jersey presenter, who suggested the name
Who or what it shows
Now the name of an autonomous submarine carried aboard the ship
What it said
The name won with 33 per cent of the vote
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

In March 2016 the Natural Environment Research Council opened a public poll to name a new £200m polar research ship. A former BBC presenter, James Hand, suggested Boaty McBoatface as a joke. It won by an enormous margin, crashed the voting website, and became an international news story within days.

The council named the ship RRS Sir David Attenborough and gave the name Boaty McBoatface to one of its autonomous submarines instead — a compromise widely judged to be the correct call. Boaty has since completed genuine Antarctic missions and returned data on deep-water mixing and climate. The naming convention it started has produced a horse, a train, a snowplough and a gritter fleet.

Why it matteredWhat changed

A research council asked the public to name a two-hundred-million-pound ship and the public chose a joke. The episode gave a name, McBoatfacing, to the mistake of letting the internet decide things, and a naming pattern that was copied onto a racehorse and a train.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The Natural Environment Research Council opens the #NameOurShip poll for its new polar research vessel. James Hand suggests Boaty McBoatface.1

  2. Remixed

    A racehorse is reported to have been named Horsey McHorseface.1

  3. Corrected

    It is announced that the ship will be called RRS Sir David Attenborough, a name that had come fifth in the poll. Boaty McBoatface is given to one of its submersibles.1

  4. Later

    The submarine Boaty McBoatface begins its first mission, in the Orkney Passage.1

  5. Remixed

    A Swedish train is reported to have been named Trainy McTrainface by public vote.1

  6. Later

    Boaty spends 51 hours under Antarctic ice in the Weddell Sea.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asThe ship is called Boaty McBoatface.

ActuallyThe ship is RRS Sir David Attenborough. Boaty McBoatface is a seven-hundred-kilogram underwater vehicle it carries.1

Commonly remembered asThe name was a new joke.

ActuallyIt was a nod to Hooty McOwlface, an owl named through an adopt-a-bird scheme in 2012.1

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

This began as a web page, not as a video. Originally published on web.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a web page, not as a video. Originally published on web.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Boaty McBoatface

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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