In 2014, the UK Government announced funding for the construction of a new polar research vessel for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to replace a pair of existing ships. This new ship was intended not only to be fully equipped with the latest instrumentation for the purposes of carrying out research in polar regions, for which it would have an improved icebreaking capability and greater endurance over the existing polar research vessel, but also to serve as a logistic support vessel for BAS teams in inshore locations. BAS contracted Houlder Ltd to undertake the basic design in which suggestions for the final configuration of the new ship were taken. Following the consultation period, in 2015, Rolls-Royce Holdings was selected to execute the detailed design and Cammell Laird in Birkenhead was selected as the preferred bidder to construct the ship. The ship cost £200m.
Sir David Attenborough was originally planned to enter service in late 2020, but in January 2020 Sky News reported that her delivery was at risk of delay, and that BAS planned to keep James Clark Ross in service for another year past her intended retirement. In August, Sir David Attenborough made a brief trip to the Liverpool Cruise Terminal before returning to Cammell Laird for final fitting out ahead of sea trials scheduled for late in the year. Sir David Attenborough began her sea trials on 21 October 2020. On 5 March 2021, an accident during a launching drill of a lifeboat resulted in injuries to a crew member. She officially made her maiden voyage to Antarctica on 16 November 2021, from Harwich and arrived at the Rothera Research Station on 17 December 2021 for the first time.
In February 2022, RRS Sir David Attenborough encountered second-year ice with thick snow layer on top that she could not overcome on her own while the vessel was attempting to reach Stange Sound in the English Coast in Antarctica. The vessel then collaborated with the French icebreaking cruise ship operated by Compagnie du Ponant, Le Commandant Charcot, which opened a channel for the research vessel. However, as the ice conditions became even more unfavourable, RRS Sir David Attenborough had to give up the original plan and seek another drop-off point to deliver scientific cargo to support the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration.
In March 2016, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) announced that members of the public were being asked to suggest names for the ship. Names previously used would not be eligible, but otherwise it was open to suggestions. The NERC stated that they would have the final say, and that the most popular name in the poll would not necessarily be the one used. Former BBC Radio Jersey presenter James Hand jokingly suggested RRS “Boaty McBoatface“. This quickly became the most popular choice and was the runaway winner when the poll closed, with 124,109 votes. The name has been described as a homage to “Hooty McOwlface”, an owl named through an “Adopt-A-Bird” programme in 2012 that became popular on the internet. On 6 May 2016, British science minister Jo Johnson announced that the choice had been made to name the ship after naturalist Sir David Attenborough, but that Boaty McBoatface would be the name of one of David Attenborough‘s remotely controlled submersibles.
