Everybody's favourite wildlife documentary filmmaker and all-round national treasure Sir David Attenborough has launched the UK's newest polar ship, which was named after him, into the River Mersey in Birkenhead.
The man behind some of the best wildlife documentaries ever made, such as Planet Earth and The Blue Planet, simply pushed a button and the hull slid into the river. The boat still needs further building work on the upper decks and internal fittings while it's in the water before it can be put to work in the Arctic and Antarctic.
"Our future will be affected by what people working on this ship will be discovering in years to come," he said.
He added that it's "the greatest possible honour" to have a ship such as this – which will act as a research vessel – bearing his name.
"When 100 years ago this country sent people down to the South Pole, we were the pioneers in exploring the Antarctic," Sir David said.
"When we did so, I suspect the reason we did was the South Pole seemed as far away as it could possibly get to be on this planet.
"Now, 100 years later, we realise that remote place is, in fact, key to the whole understanding of the planet. What goes on down there affects the whole of the Earth."
Some of you may remember this as the ship that was almost named "Boaty McBoatface" following an online campaign to try and find a name for it. However, they decided to go with the RRS Sir David Attenborough instead – although they did name one of the boat's submarines Boaty McBoatface instead.
"She's like a giant Airfix model," said Cammell Laird project director John Drummond.
"She's being put together with one million pieces of steel, 30km of piping, 5,000 valves and 450km of cabling."
The two UK ships that are currently floating around in the polar ice caps are the RRS James Clark Ross and the RRS Ernest Shackleton, which have about 50 years' service between them and are very expensive to run.
The £200m, state-of-the-art Attenborough will replace these two ships and will be available to do the work they did together all on its own. It'll be largely used for research and logistics.
