
'Boaty McBoatface' polar ship named after David Attenborough - sghi
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652
======
JorgeGT
Good luck selling plushies, apparel, comics or animated cartoons of lil' fun
Sir David Attenborough! Now instead of having the dream name for science
outreach and awareness for kids, you have a stark, cynical lesson on
democracy.

~~~
sandworm101
Kids are great, but they also want to appeal to young people who aren't still
five. Silly names aren't a great marketing tool for pulling in recent college
graduates or dedicated sailors.

~~~
enraged_camel
Only the most boring, humorless person would think a ship named "Boaty
McBoatface" only appeals to kids.

~~~
logfromblammo
Indeed, the name would have been a hearty reassurance that the employer is not
_entirely_ lost up its own ass _all the time_.

I have always been a great fan of Dada, Surrealism, and Discordianism. So I am
somewhat disappointed that it seems so dreadfully important to unwaveringly
maintain the illusion that science is Serious Business. There is a time and
place for both whimsy and gravitas in all aspects of life.

------
samsolomon
I don't know. It feels like a missed opportunity to excite kids about
research.

Can't you just see the series of children's books about Boaty McBoatface and
all the incredible science adventures it has—a Magic School Bus 2.0?

Many people taking themselves too seriously. It's a shame.

~~~
nness
I would hope stories about Sir David Attenborough would stir a more
adventurous spirit in kids than a funnily named boat.

~~~
nekopa
I think the funny name would spark the interest.

But then again, why not have both? I think a drone called Boaty McBoatface
could get into all kinds of crazy trouble, only to be bailed out by the wise
old mothership, Sir David Attenborough.

Could actually work out really well. I may just have to start working on my
new kids book series "Curious Boaty, the cheeky little ROS (Remotely Operated
Submarine)" \- with related merchandise, a toy ROS with HD video and sampling
claw that can be operated from your Android or iOS phone/tablet

~~~
threeseed
This is what I can't understand.

There are so many research vessels. Can't one at least be fun, playful and a
little bit ridiculous. People are desperately trying to tell institutions (not
just in this situation but also in politics) that being honest and more
connected with the ordinary person on the street is a virtue.

~~~
theoh
The problem, I think, is that the suffix "face" makes it sound like an insult.
It would be a derogatory name, which is just unacceptable.

~~~
shepardrtc
Personally I'm fine with "Boatface" being derogatory toward boats. They're
inanimate objects; I think they'll be okay.

~~~
theoh
Grown ups don't tolerate name calling. It's unpleasant.

------
sschueller
Sir David Attenborough should have his legal name (or at least his twitter
handle :)) changed to 'Sir Boaty McBoatface'. Then see what happens...

~~~
braythwayt

      > In a stunning move, Buckingham Palace announces
      > that the former David Attenborough will now be
      > known as “Sir Naturalist McNatureface, OBE."

------
planetjones
I think the name chosen is a good one and like David Attenborough himself, the
boat's name will endure for a long time.

However, what did the organisation (NERC) expect when they gave a free choice
for the names of the boat. They would have been far better having a poll of
say 5 names which had been pre-selected.

~~~
dingaling
I'm not convinced on the choice of name; _Sir_ David Attenborough has already
received many honours and appears to have received this nomination because (1)
he is famous as a broadcaster and (2) is popular as a person, seemingly being
of a mild and pleasant character.

So they cleverly side-stepped the Boaty issue by picking a name to which
people can't object without being accused of picking on a "nice" 90-year-old
man. I don't think that's a good basis for a naming policy.

I'm sure there are many publicly-anonymous actual research scientists who
could have received this honour instead and BIS / NERC could still have thrown
the Boaty-as-ROV bone to the voters.

~~~
sandworm101
To see your name on a large ship you need to be old. It's the sort of thing
for people who are well into retirement, if not recently deceased. Pick
someone younger and you may look foolish should they become involved in
something later. Given the public nature of the naming, they also want to go
with someone popular. So they want an older person, who the public knows, and
that has a history of doing something for the environment. Nobody else covers
those three areas like Attenborough.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Chevron had a policy of naming ships after living executives - although it
quietly renamed the Condoleeza Rice to something less political in 2001.

With respect to Attenborough, the RRS David Attenborough is a very unexciting
choice and isn't going to do anything at all to raise the profile of
environmental research.

~~~
hirsin
Can't say I'm opposed to Chevron's idea here. I'm sure headlines like "Chevron
CEO hits reef, spilling millions of crude and killing thousands of seals"
might make them take safety a (tiny) bit more seriously. Nothing good happens
with oil tankers etc.

------
alblue
The remotely operated vehicle has been named BoatyMcBoatface instead:

[https://twitter.com/NERCscience/status/728508385692418048](https://twitter.com/NERCscience/status/728508385692418048)

~~~
ojii
But that should've been called DroneyMcDroneface. It's not a boat!

~~~
alblue
Actually in naval terminology a "boat" is a vessel that can be carried by
another vessel (eg life boat).

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat)

Though frankly I think RemoteyMcBoatface would be good here :-)

~~~
arethuza
What about submarines - aren't they referred to as "boats"?

~~~
vlehto
During WWII there was somewhat surprizigly unified ship classification and
there was hardly any civillian submarines at the time. It was based on
tonnage, speed and main gun calibre. Anything smaller than 1000 tons was a
boat. Interwar German submarines we're around 500 - 1000 tons, so they we're
called "u-boot".

Since WWII names stuck by role of ship. Now we have all kinds of propaganda
pieces floating around and ship classification names don't mean anything
anymore. A "frigate" might be anything except oil tanker or CATOBAR carrier.

If you would use WWII classification by top speed and tonnage and apply it to
modern vessels, Ohio class submarine would be "Submarine Heavy Cruiser" and
Typhoon would be "Submarine Battleship".

~~~
arethuza
The Royal Navy did have "through-deck cruisers" for a while - they did
eventually admit that they were mini aircraft carriers.

------
_Marak_
I'm disappointed.

If an organization decides to use a social media contest like this to promote
themselves, they should have a social responsibility to adhere to the demands
of the people.

"Boaty McBoatface" was a good name.

------
rectang
Disappointing. It's as if UC Santa Cruz had chosen "Sea Lions" over "Banana
Slugs".

[http://www.ucsc.edu/about/mascot.html](http://www.ucsc.edu/about/mascot.html)

~~~
orthecreedence
From what I heard, they tried to change it a while ago and were met with
severe backlash. Banana Slugs is so much more interesting and disarming than
some typical predatory animal. Nobody will ever forget UCSC's mascot.

------
pjc50
I think people are underestimating the popularity of David Attenborough - to
many people in the UK he is _the_ face, and especially voice, of TV
naturalism, and has been for decades.

------
simonh
Naming one of the remote drones 'Boaty' heads off people calling the ship
'Boaty' as a nickname. I wonder if that's why they did it.

------
siddboots
Good choice, and also a great way for the organisation to get out of a tough
PR situation. Literally no-one dislikes David Attenborough.

~~~
stevetrewick
Black swan. I dislike him. He's a staunch proponent of population control and
patron of Population Matters a group which amongst other things campaigns for
net zero immigration. His undeniably impressive professional oeuvre has a
carbon footprint like a charcoal yeti making some of his environmental
preachiness quite hypocritical. I still like his programs, though.

~~~
orthecreedence
Curious, I can understand not liking him for supporting/speaking at an
organization you dislike, but what's wrong with the idea of population
control?

So many of our problems could be fixed by limiting the population of the human
race. To be clear, I'm not proposing a solution for doing so nor am I saying
the ends would justify the means for how this is reached. However can you not
agree that climate change, pollution, resource shortages, etc are caused by
having too many people on this planet? This is especially true if people in
first-world countries want to continue their lives of excess.

The only reason to keep growing in population is to add fuel to the economic
fire, so to speak. This is not a sustainable trend though.

------
whyleyc
It's almost as if representative democracy of this kind is a complete sham.
It's a good job this kind of ridiculous situation doesn't crop up here on HN
from our YC overlords !

Wait, what. [1]

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11633517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11633517)

~~~
david927
What are you talking about? Neither is a representative democracy. They don't
_have_ to do anything.

Both simply appealed to the public as an experiment and learned that a large
swath of the public feels it has no power and finds it empowering, now that
they finally have their hands on the steering wheel, to flip the car rather
than drive it. Children who haven't been given much autonomy will often have
the same mentality: when finally given power they will be destructive because
it's a better test of the reality of the new-found power.

~~~
whyleyc
Ok, so maybe "representative democracy" (in a strict political sense) was bad
terminology to use, but my point is that both experiments set themselves up
with a veneer of democracy only for that to come crumbling down when they
didn't like the answers they got.

------
dzdt
Being named Boaty McBoatface would have been such a great icebreaker for
starting outreach discussions. A ship like this one needs a great icebreaker
sometimes.

------
sbmassey
Goofy names are usually fun for about 5 minutes, but quickly become seriously
annoying if you have to use them continually. I imagine the same is true for
ship names as for naming classes or functions.

------
sccxy
Good outcome from this naming campaign

>We're building on the #BoatyMcBoatface spirit with a £1m Polar Explorer
programme to inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers

[https://twitter.com/JoJohnsonMP/status/728499945402204160](https://twitter.com/JoJohnsonMP/status/728499945402204160)

------
genmon
They should have called it Pinboard

------
daimyoyo
If they wanted to name the boat after someone like Attenborough that's great
but why open the vote to the public and then ignore the most popular choice?

------
f4stjack
They can name it whatever they want, that ship has been recorded as "Boaty
McBoatface" to my memory.

Also really kudos to them, Boaty McBoatface made everyone smile when they
heard the name and got them interested; Sir David Attenborough however...
doesn't make that effect.

------
smoyer
This just in ...

In a surprise move, Sir David Attenborough legally changes his name to Boaty
McBoatface in support of the Internet hordes. Facing waning popularity, this
maneuver is seen as a means of returning to the cult-icon status days he
experienced as a broadcaster. When asked for comment, Sir McBoatface stated
"I'm a few days short of my ninetieth birthday and let's face it - once I'm
gone nobody's going to remember a name like Attenborough. As Boaty McBoatface,
my name will actually be remembered. Would you like fries with that?"

------
goffley3
Is it too much just let the internet have its candy? Just this once, when it's
completely innocuous.

~~~
stronglikedan
As another comment mentioned, it appears that it's already had its candy[0].

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants)

------
swamp40
If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. ~ Mark Twain
_(apocryphal)_

------
TheCraiggers
When will they learn that holding an online poll to name stuff is never,
_ever_ a good idea. They should count themselves lucky the winning entry was
work-safe.

Although I still feel that if you're going to go through with it you should
stick with the results. Silly people.

------
sgnelson
If nothing else, I must say that reading through this thread, I now understand
much better why I've always thought the world can be such a sad place; There
are way too many people who apparently have no sense of humor.

------
pessimizer
Thank God that this boat was named after a television host rather than a
whimsy chosen by the public. I guess "seriousness" was a choice between
terminally ill children and entertainers. Couldn't find a scientist?

~~~
timthorn
David Attenborough has a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
No one in England would characterise him as an entertainer - he is well
regarded both in front and behind the camera as a science communicator, and
was responsible as the head of BBC2 for commissioning a vast range of science
television programming.

------
transfire
And lo it is proven... the government does _not_ listen to the people.

------
delecti
"Boaty McBoatface" was just irreverent enough without being offensive that it
should have been a perfect choice to gain a bunch of free publicity.

------
jonathankoren
Am I just wrong in thinking that it's a relatively new phenomenon to name
things after living people?

------
jordanb
The cute name wasn't suitably distinguished so instead they named it after a
television personality..

------
quocble
Everyone: let's go with the most boring name possible. it's who we are!

------
mherdeg
Wow! Big year for Leicester!

------
unlinker
For some time, iirc, it was about to be called Blas de Lezo.

------
mtgx
And the boat was never to be heard from again (in the media).

------
quadyeast
This always cracks me up and I don't know why.

------
pyython
No justice in this world.

------
randac
That's great... but meanwhile, he's being downvoted for doing exactly the same
as you; sharing his opinion.

Stay classy, HN.

~~~
fossuser
I suspect he's being downvoted both because HN users disagree and also because
he's stating his opinion as if it's obvious fact.

~~~
hartpuff
> he's being downvoted both because HN users disagree

Which is probably the usual reason people downvote. And it's a shit reason.

Downvoting (ie, trying to bury or hide a post) because someone says sumfing u
don't wike is pathetic and childish; if you disagree either argue against it
or move on.

Downvotes (if they have to exist) should be reserved for posts that are
objectively non-constructive (as in posts that don't make any argument,
whether you agree with it or not, or add anything to a discussion).

~~~
Nadya
_> Which is probably the usual reason people downvote. And it's a shit
reason._

In a matter of public opinion about whether or not this would interest
children in science - the votes are showing more people think it _would_ than
_wouldn 't_.

I also have a feeling more downvotes are coming for trying to pass off their
(minority) opinion as some sort of established fact that one could reason
themselves into, when most people who have reasoned with themselves came to
the _opposite_ conclusion.

If you take _that_ to the logical conclusion: they're _insulting other people
's intelligence_ for reaching the opposite conclusion. Which, last I checked,
is not proper discourse on HN and routinely gets downvoted along with any
other name calling.

~~~
hartpuff
I honestly can't tell if this is meant to be serious or not.

It's not proper discourse on HN, or it insults people's intelligence, to have
a minority opinion? What?

------
ck2
We need to quit naming things after people in the first place, it's always
egotistical and political.

------
x5n1
They should have just gone with it, and said the people have spoken. It would
have been good for morale, because everyone would have a smile on their face
every time they said the name in a British accent.

~~~
distances
I disagree. I think it's fine to disregard juvenile name suggestions, and the
supposed disappointment in the Internet will be forgotten in a couple of days.

~~~
duaneb
> I think it's fine to disregard juvenile name suggestions, and the supposed
> disappointment in the Internet will be forgotten in a couple of days.

Along with the ship itself.

