SS Warrimoo

In December 1899, SS Warrimoo was cruising through the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator calculated their position as 0 degrees, 31 minutes north, by 179 degrees, 30 minutes west, ie very close to the equator where it meets the International Date Line. Captain John Phillips realized that it was the night of 30th of December, and if he altered his course a little and timed his passage through the crossing, he could effect a neat trick that can’t be repeated for a hundred years.

Captain Phillips 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.

This 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.