This U.K. research vessel might get the name Boaty McBoatface

A $285 million U.K. research ship could sail under the name Boaty McBoatface if officials heed the results of an online naming poll, BBC reports. The 15,000-metric-ton ship is being built by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to conduct research around Antarctica, and the government body offered the public the chance to name it. After a former BBC radio anchor jokingly suggested Boaty McBoatface, social media users rallied around the name, pushing it to first place with 124,109 votes, four times higher than the second place name of an infant girl with terminal cancer. NERC is not bound to the results of the poll, and it plans to decide on the name in “due course.” The to-be-named vessel will become operational in 2019.