RRS Sir David Attenborough & Ice Worlds Festival
From Friday 28th – Saturday 30th October 2021 Ice Worlds will be taking place at the National Maritime Museum in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. During the festival the Polar Research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough will be moored at Greenwich Ship Tier near Greenwich Pier. Although Sir David Attenborough will not be open to the public visitors can still view the ship from the embankment at Greenwich or from our sailings to Greenwich Pier.
A range of free special events & activities will be taking place across Royal Museums Greenwich during the Ice Worlds Festival. Activities include polar talks & workshops led by real polar scientists & climate experts. The talks & lectures cover a range of polar topics including Life in the Arctic & Antarctic Sea Animals. Geophysicist Rob Larter will also be delivering Boaty McBoatface and the Thwaites Glacier, a lecture explaining how scientists are using robotic underwater vehicles like Boaty McBoatface to study the Thwaites Glacier.
RRS Sir David Attenborough
About the Ship
RRS Sir David Attenborough was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, named by her namesake & launched on the 14th July 2018. As one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world RRS Sir David Attenborough will help to keep Britain at the forefront of polar science. Part of the ships duties will include carrying out scientific research in some of the most hostile environments in the world & carrying supplies to research stations in the Arctic & Antarctic.
Naming Boaty McBoatface RRS Sir David Attenborough
Traditionally Royal Research Ships (RRS) have taken their names from famous explorers such as Ernest Shackleton & James Clark Ross or famous naturalists such as Charles Darwin. In March 2016 the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) announced that the name of their latest research ship would be chosen with the help of an online poll. Fortunately the NERC stated that they would have the final say & that the name with the most votes would not necessarily be the name that was chosen.
The BBC Radio presenter James Hand suggested the name RRS Boaty McBoatface, a name which swiftly rose to the top of the poll with 124,109 votes (33%). The NERC’s decision to use a different name prompted an online petition which resulted in the naming process being reviewed by a House of Lords committee. The vessel has since been named RRS Sir David Attenborough however the name Boaty McBoatface lives on. One of the polar research ships remote controlled submersibles is named Boaty McBoatface instead.
See RRS Sir David Attenborough by Boat
All of our cruises to or from Greenwich Pier travel past Greenwich Ship Tier. If you are visiting Greenwich between the 27th & 30th why not arrive by boat & see the ship from the river.
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