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?! :)