[1][2][3][7] The ALRs can contain or carry a wide range of oceanographic instruments and sensors to gather data to help understand ocean current and activity, and ultimately the Earth's climate.

[11] In October 2016, Jo Johnson, Minister for Universities and Science, announced that the ship would be named Sir David Attenborough, after the eminent English zoologist and broadcaster, who came fourth in the poll.

In one such observation, Jennifer Finney Boylan of The New York Times wrote that to be "McBoatfaced" was to allow people to "deliberately make their choices not in order to foster the greatest societal good, but, instead, to mess with you".

[2] Her maiden voyage proper started on 3 April 2017, with the Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO)[7][21] expedition on board research ship RRS James Clark Ross of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), to research how Antarctic Bottom Water leaves the Weddell Sea and enters the Southern Ocean through a 3.5 kilometres (11,000 feet) deep region known as the Orkney Passage,[6] south of Chile.

[5][22][23][24] During this expedition, which was part of a primary project with the University of Southampton, the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), along with additional support from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Princeton University, she traveled 180 kilometres (97 nautical miles; 110 miles) at depths of up to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), and collected data on water temperature, salinity, and turbulence.

Fitted with new chemical and acoustic sensors, these will enable Boaty to seek, or 'sniff out' traces indicating the artificial release of gas from beneath the seabed.

[7] Starting March 2017, Boaty provided a package of online educational resources, primarily for teachers in low-attaining primary and secondary schools, as an aid to improving learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects for pupils.