THE general public have spoken and Boaty McBoatface has come out on top.

But those eager to see whether the Natural Environment Council’s new multi-million-pound polar research ship will slip into the seas with that name emblazed on its hull now have to wait and see what decision the research council will make.

Swindon-based NERC has made no secret of the fact that a panel will have the final say on the name of the vessel, but it was hoped that members of the public would take the campaign to their hearts and be inspired to vote for polar research champions as a name for the ship.

Instead, a tongue-in-cheek suggestion put forward by BBC radio presenter James Hand to name the vessel RRS Boaty McBoatface took the contest by storm and led to the contest receiving international press coverage, leading to the support for Boaty McBoatface to soar.

On Saturday night the entries finally closed and McBoatface clinched the top place with 124,109 votes.

Its closest competitor was RRS Poppy-Mai with 34,371 votes while RRS Henry Worsley came in at third with 15,231 votes.

Earlier in the month NERC made the decision to remove a name that snuck in at second place after the contest was sabotaged by Spanish pirates seeking to pay homage to an infamous Spanish seadog who scuppered a sizeable chunk of the British fleet.

“RRS Blas de Lezo” began streaming ahead in the contest, drawing around 37,000 votes of support, which had it been permitted to remain in the contest would see it take second place, although support could have grown significantly higher.

The infamous one-armed, one-legged and one-eyed pirate was responsible for sinking the best part of a fleet of British ships during the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741.

The suggestion was reportedly put forward by Joaqui Andreu who said the nomination would recognise a sailor who "made great contributions to British undersea research".

Following this attack on British naval power, a NERC spokeswoman defended the removal of the entry from the contest – despite it streaking up the leader board to second place. She said: “We have suggested criteria for proposing names for the ship, and these emphasise the environmental and polar science that the ship will carry out. As this nomination referred to the sinking of British ships it has been removed as part of our ongoing moderation process.”

On Sunday after the appeal was closed the spokeswoman thanked all members of the public who had taken part in the campaign. She said: “We are no longer accepting suggestions to name our ship as we have now reached the closing date of 16 April.

“We’ve had an extremely high volume of suggestions and will now review all of the suggested names. The final decision will be announced in due course.”