A vessel that made history!
SS Warrimoo was sailing from Vancouver to Australia due to arrive at the crossing of the International Date Line and the Equator on 31st December 1899 at midnight.
Captain John Phillips decided that his navigator first mate Payton was correct in saying this offered the opportunity of a lifetime so changed course slightly, adjusted engine speed and at midnight his ship lay on the Equator exactly at the point where it crossed the Date Line.
The consequences of this bizarre position were that the forward section of the ship was in the Southern hemisphere in midsummer on the 1st January 1900, stern in the Northern Hemisphere in midwinter on 31st December 1899.
The ship was :- in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons, two different centuries...all at the same
time
Found this story in my April magazine "Sea Breezes" previously told in "Ottawa Journal" 1942 and "Ships and the Sea" 1953
Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.