News Boaty McBoatface hits the water.

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188

Andy44

owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Addon Developer
Joined
Nov 22, 2007
Messages
7,620
Reaction score
6
Points
113
Location
In the Mid-Atlantic states
It's a shame the BBC doesn't allow comments on those pages, for stories like this the comments are always the best part.

Then again, internet culture is what led to this in the first place.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Very tight on their content, can't say I blame them.

Good job tugs can go backwards as fast as they can forward...

N.
 

C3PO

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
2,604
Reaction score
17
Points
53
I like that they got Sir David McDavidface to launch it. :thumbup:
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Yes, local hero. Enthusiastic chap, no one has a bad word to say about him.
Good name for the boat.

N.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Royal naming for Sir David Attenborough polar ship
By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent, Birkenhead

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49829315

15000 Tons, biggest commercial hull built in the UK for thirty years. Shows how our ship-building industry has declined.
Looks a fine ship though, lots of toys.

You wait years for a polar-research ship, then two turn up at the same time!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nort...ion-german-icebreaker-rv-polarstern-1.5293837

Some time earlier...
HMS Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during the Second World War and commissioned after the end of the war. She was the biggest and fastest of the Royal Navy's battleships,[3] the last battleship to be launched in the world, and the only ship of her class.
The Royal Navy anticipated being outnumbered by the combined German and Japanese battleships in the early 1940s, and had therefore started building the Lion-class battleships. However the time-consuming construction of the triple-16-inch turrets for the Lion-class would delay their completion until 1943 at the earliest. The British had enough 15-inch (381 mm) guns and turrets in storage to allow one ship of a modified Lion-class design with four twin-15-inch turrets to be completed faster than the Lion-class vessels that had already been laid down.
Work on Vanguard was started and stopped several times during the war, and her design was revised several times during her construction to reflect war experience. These stoppages and changes prevented her from being completed before the end of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(23)

The ship's main armament consisted of eight 42-calibre BL 15-inch Mk I guns in four twin hydraulically powered gun turrets, 'A', 'B', 'X' and 'Y' from bow to stern. When the turrets were modernised to the Mk I(N) RP12 design, their maximum elevation was increased from 20° to +30°,
Excuse my ignorance, I thought maximum range was at 45 degrees?

As a part of the scrapping process, sections of 150-millimetre-thick (5.9 in) pre-atomic steel plate uncontaminated with radionuclides were recovered from Vanguard and used for the shielding of the whole body monitor at the Radiobiological Research Laboratory (now DSTL) at Alverstoke, Gosport in Hampshire, England.[54]
Well, thinking ahead or past.
 
Last edited:

Urwumpe

Not funny anymore
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
37,588
Reaction score
2,312
Points
203
Location
Wolfsburg
Preferred Pronouns
Sire
Still better than the successor project for the Polarstern. Its still supposed to launch next year. But there is still no one building it, they did not decide on the shipbuilder.

That the commission responsible for the project is abbreviated as "WTF" is just too fitting there.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Well, this may help...

 

jedidia

shoemaker without legs
Addon Developer
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
10,842
Reaction score
2,105
Points
203
Location
between the planets
Still better than the successor project for the Polarstern. Its still supposed to launch next year. But there is still no one building it, they did not decide on the shipbuilder.

That the commission responsible for the project is abbreviated as "WTF" is just too fitting there.


Let me guess, each shipyard happened to bribe other officials and now they can't agree to give it to anybody because they alredy accepted them? Tends to happen quite frequently with humanitairian projects...
 

Urwumpe

Not funny anymore
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
37,588
Reaction score
2,312
Points
203
Location
Wolfsburg
Preferred Pronouns
Sire
Let me guess, each shipyard happened to bribe other officials and now they can't agree to give it to anybody because they alredy accepted them? Tends to happen quite frequently with humanitairian projects...

No, its German shipbuilding. That's closer to Melrose Place than Sopranos.

"Everybody knows that they will ask me to build their ship"
"Oh, you so deserve it."
"I have always admired your drydock."

15 minutes later

"The wharf has a lot of issues, hasn't it."
"Yeah, and that crane really doesn't fit there."
...

(About 6 months ago, Lürssen did already publish a press release, saying that they are the best choice for that project. Of course the other remaining shipbuilders in Germany did not agree, but as usual in that tight community, nobody really loudly disagreed as well. )
 
Last edited:

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188

Having a few weeks in London before heading South.

Probably stop off at Le Havre to insult the French. (Fishing grounds problem after brexit).

 

MaxBuzz

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2016
Messages
1,392
Reaction score
2,126
Points
128
Location
Kursk
it was difficult for me to understand the English classification of icebreakers in Russia there is a completely different classification "polar class 5/4"
imilar "Icebreaker6" that is, the limit for this vessel is ice 1.0 meter thick this vessel can only sail in non-arctic seas
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
"Engineers will want to check its performance in sea-ice, something they haven't had the chance to do.
The Attenborough is what's termed a Polar Class 4 icebreaker, which means it should have the strength to crash through metre-thick floes at a steady pace and without damage to its hull.
The £200m ship is state of the art. It has a helipad (helicopters are essential for exploration and safety), cranes and onboard labs, and it has an enhanced ability to deploy subs and other ocean-survey and sampling equipment."

They have had a year of sea-trials, surprised they haven't been able to check its sea-ice performance. Its not a dedicated icebreaker, its a support and research vessel.
 
Last edited:
Top