It started out as a dreary online contest to name a kinda boring research ship destined to plow through slushy polar ice in the service of Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
But the #NameOurShip contest spun out of control after a few joke names gathered more votes than the traditional, serious options—like Falcon, Endeavor, and even David Attenborough. The sillier names suggested mostly riffed on the research vessel’s future artic plundering route: Ice Ice Baby and It’s Bloody Cold Here were two early hits.
But one gag name quickly skyrocketed to the top of the list, with over 15,000 votes. If the people of the Internet have their way, NERC’s scientific research vessel will be christened the RSS Boaty McBoatface.
Fans of the name are so intent on its winning, they’ve even managed to push RSS Boaty McBoatface the Return into the fifth top spot as a backup.
Top ten names on the @NERCscience #NameOurShip vote. Top three all brilliant, but wow what a result for science comm pic.twitter.com/tSLe8P9QPN
— Dr James Borrell (@James_Borrell) March 20, 2016
The contest’s popularity caused the web page to shut down, too, and NERC was forced to post an update on Thursday apologizing for technical issues “due to overwhelming interest.” The Daily Dot tried (and failed) repeatedly to view the crashed contest site, which will hopefully be back up soon.
James Hand, a communications manager at the Independent Association of Prep Schools, originally suggested the name in the online poll—and gave an interview to BBC on Monday in which he clarified that about 90 percent of the boat names entered were jokes.
“Some of the names were really, really funny,” Hand told the BBC’s Radio Jersey. “Clifford the Big Red Boat—that’s my favorite.”
Hand said he threw RSS Boaty McBoatface into the ring on a lark, thinking it would get lost among the many other silly suggestions. But by Friday night, friends were tweeting at him about the rise of McBoatface—and by Saturday, the NERC ship-naming contest site crashed due to thousands of users trying to upvote the popular handle. In a typically British fashion, Hand reached out to the NERC organization to apologize for inadvertently hijacking the contest and tanking the website in the process.
I’m terribly sorry about all of this, @NERCscience.
— James Hand (@JamesHand) March 20, 2016
My apology for #BoatyMcBoatface was in the most British sense. I stand by it being a brilliant name.
— James Hand (@JamesHand) March 21, 2016
Hand also tweeted to clarify that a new pun-laden Twitter account, @Mcboatfacepride, wasn’t actually his doing.
The @NERCscience are really being prow-beaten into submission with this one #BoatyMcBoatface @JamesHand
— Boaty McBoatface (@Mcboatfacepride) March 21, 2016
Oh man I just ate a whole loaf of bread and I feel bloatymcbloatface #boatymcboatface
— Boaty McBoatface (@Mcboatfacepride) March 20, 2016
As one Twitter user pointed out, though, all the votes in the world may not be enough to make RSS Boaty McBoatface a reality. The final naming decision rests in the hands of NERC’s chief executive.
Let’s not get too carried away with RSS Boaty McBoatface #NameOurShip pic.twitter.com/y3UdpiUOD1
— Keith Bradnam 📈 (@kbradnam) March 19, 2016
Monday saw the emergence of a petition that aims to “Save Boaty McBoatface” from possible extinction, even while the contest is ostensibly still open. At this point, were the NERC higher-ups to decide on a different name, there could be riots in the streets. Or at least on Twitter.
Though the popular vote is clear, NERC has already thrown a slight bit of shade to the idea: On the organization’s website, a photo upload of the proposed vessel is titled “im-a-ship-not-a-boaty-mcboatface.png.”
Photo via Nerc.ac.uk
