UK's new polar research ship will be named RRS Sir David Attenborough, not #BoatyMcBoatfacehttps://t.co/kBT1lI0Bhxpic.twitter.com/gW1JpeHP1e
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 6, 2016
It's been a long national saga. Or for some a national nightmare. But Boaty McBoatface, the name voted on by some 124,000 people to adorn a new British research vessel, is not happening, according to the BBC.
Instead, the boat will be named for one of the more popular British humans of all time, the broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.
Boaty will still live on, though, after the Natural Environment Research Council—the British agency that put the name to an online vote—said Friday it would be the new moniker of a submarine attached to the research ship.
Over 11,000 people also voted for Attenborough's name to be on the ship, though he stood no chance in the face of internet virality. The RRS David Attenborough is to set sail in 2019.
This being England, members of Parliament said they would review the naming process. One MP said they would investigate whether the episode was a "triumph of public engagement or a PR disaster," according to the BBC.
Well, which was it? We still don't know.