Cachy Mc Cacheface
Or: How does democracy actually work?
Democracy is a good and important thing. No doubts about that. But what if you ask people in a binding way about something they are actually not really interested in? What if even amusement has a higher value than a meaningful deed?
This cache is a reminder and an honour to it's name-related example: "Boaty Mc Boatface"
In 2014, the National Environment Research Council (NERC), a British government agency that conducts research into the environmental sciences, announced the construction of a £200 million (about $288 million) polar research ship. The ship, which will have on-board laboratories and a range of 19,000 nautical miles, is expected to set sail in 2019 — but before that, it needs a name. In an act of naïvete, the NERC asked people on the Internet to vote on a name for the ship.
As the NERC site explains, “We would like the name to be inspirational and about environmental and polar science, to help us tell everyone about the amazing work the ship does…The ship could be named after a local historical figure, movement, or landmark – or a famous polar explorer or scientist.” Voters, not content to settle for something as jejune as a famed explorer or scientist, have rallied behind a more iconoclastic name: the RRS (Royal Research Ship) Boaty McBoatface.
Mc-Boat-Face: the tongue drunkenly stumbling three steps to fall off the teeth. With over 18,000 votes and counting, the name has taken a decisive lead over more conventional names like RRS David Attenborough, as well as other experimental choices like “Big Metal Floaty Thingy-thing.”
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The name has proven so popular that the Web page for voting has experienced frequent crashing due to traffic, as users flock to christen one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world. Though it may seem perplexing to some, the name Boaty McBoatface continues a long history of dry British humor, befitting the nation of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde.
Boaty, an adjective presumably meaning “of or like a boat,” instantly lets one know that the vessel is, in fact, a boat. “Boatface” conjures the absurd image of an anthropomorphic boat; a hysterical thought because boats, as everyone knows, do not actually have faces. As for the use of Mc- in the surname: a possible comment on Scottish Independence, perhaps? It’s hard to say; like all great satire, Boaty McBoatface remains open to interpretation.
The poll to name the 125m ship ended in April 2016. With a clear winner: Boaty McBoatface. Those who had misgivings about the frontrunner could take solace in the fact that NERC had anticipated this outcome. Their posting stated that “The final name will be selected by NERC,” giving the organization an out if democracy somehow fails.....
That's why they made use of their freedom and called it after number 5 in the list, RRS David Attenborough, after the great Animal documentarist. It was somehow a compromise between the the choice of an embarassing name and not holding their promise to the public...
Instead, they gave the name to one of their investigative drone vehicles.
The small yellow dive boat is soon on its first journey to put it’s round yellow nose deeply in oceanographic affairs :).
Boaty and its two siblings are among the most advanced and powerful dive vehicles available: The 2 Autosub Long Range vehicles are a special development for the British National Oceanography Center (NOC). They can go thousands of kilometers, dive into 6000 meters depth and are also usable under an ice layer in polar waters. Boaty and his autonomous diving siblings are supposed to help oceanographers to investigate the processes of changes in the polar regions, such as the ice melt. This ROV can be removed from the mother ship. Every now and then they dive up and spark their data streams to the ship and the waiting scientists.
Boaty's first mission goes into the deep currents of the South Atlantic, commissioned by the Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO) research project, a joint expedition to the BAS (British Antarctic Survey), the University of Southampton and NOC. (Reminder: The South Orkneys are just around the corner from South Georgia, not far from the Falkland Islands and close to the Antarctic Peninsula).
A dumb name for a precious boat was the image to give a stupid name to a worthy cache =).
Sources:: http://scienceblogs.de/meertext/2017/03/14/boaty-mc-boatface-auf-antarktis-expedition/, (Sep 17) https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/boaty-mcboatface/, (Sep 17) https://nameourship.nerc.ac.uk/, (Sep 17) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface (Sep17)