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What do you call a polar boat?

What do you call a polar boat? No, it’s not the set up to some kind of joke (though feel free to comment or tweet us a punchline to it if you can!) – it’s a request from the UK Natural Environment Research Council to find a name for their brand new floating Polar Research boat!

This ship, which is still currently being built (in Merseyside), will cost £200m - payable by the UK Taxpayer – will have 20 laboratories and be able to house 90 scientists on-board. 

As well as obviously being able to withstand crazy low temperatures, the boat can be self-sufficient for 60 days – meaning it’s possible to get right into the depths of the Arctic or Antarctic to do some serious cutting-edge research.

So what will it be called? Well, NERC have are requesting that people – anyone – can submit a name for consideration through their dedicated website. 

The only rules are that the name will start with ‘RSS’ and cannot be a name that has already been used (like the current RRS James Clark Ross and RRS Ernest Shackleton).

So what do you think is should be called?  If you submit a name, let us know?! :)