Britain's "Boaty McBoatface" heads for open seas
The 200 million pound ($260 million), state-of-the-art, polar research vessel sailed past Liverpool's historic docks and out into the sea, headed for north Wales.
Officially the ship is named after the veteran BBC naturalist David Attenborough, but to many Britons it will always be known as "Boaty McBoatface," after that suggestion topped a public poll to name the vessel in 2016.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will operate the ship, carrying out ice trials in the Arctic in early 2021 before a journey to the Antarctic in November next year, where scientists say it will transform UK research in polar regions.
