Ah, the heady days of March 2016. Action film London Has Fallen was released and slated, Corona was merely the name of a beer, and the British public pulled off undoubtedly their greatest communal prank to date... voting to give a Very Serious Vessel the rather unserious name, Boaty McBoatFace.
Five years on, the rightful Boaty McBoatFace has — undemocratically, some might say — been given the much more grown-up name of RSS Sir David Attenborough, and it's coming to London this month.
The RSS Sir David Attenborough is a research ship designed to carry out missions in the hostile environment around the Arctic and Antarctic. The Boaty McBoatFace moniker didn't drown completely, by the way — it was instead given to an autonomous yellow submarine carried onboard the larger ship.
Boaty and Dave are mooring up in Greenwich for three days in October, before heading off into the sunset freezing Antarctic conditions on their first scientific mission. During the London visit, Royal Museums Greenwich teams up with the British Antarctic Survey for Ice Worlds, a festival of events all about polar exploration.
You can find out what life's like at the poles of our planet by getting a closer look at the clothing and equipment used by explorers working in -50°c. There's also a chance to virtually explore the UK's Arctic research station in a remote part of Norway, and find out about the technology used on board the £200million vessel, which took four years to build.
And if you're just there to gawp at Boaty McBoatFace? Perfectly OK too.
Ice Worlds is at Royal Museums Greenwich on 28-30 October 2021. It's free, but you need to book in advance.
