SS Warrimoo ~~~ December 31, 1899 ~~~ Captain John Phillips ~~~ shared by Jeff McDonald

 Now that is a pretty cool piece of history!

 

 

On December 31, 1899, Captain John Phillips was navigating the passenger-cargo ship SS Warrimoo when his crew informed him that they were approaching the equator.

Captain Phillips had his navigator double check their position, and then adjusted the course and speed of the Warrimoo so that at exactly 12 a.m., the ship lay astride the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line.

The forward part of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and in the middle of summer. The rear part of the ship was in the Northern Hemisphere and in the middle of winter. Half of the ship was on 30 December 1899, while the forward half skipped a day ahead and into 1 January 1900.

The ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons and two different hemispheres but also in two different centuries all at the same time.

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