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 31 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.
Thanks to Yasantha De Silva who moderates a Facebook page called Weird Things in the World for this post. I investigated the truth of this claim before I posted it, and it’s said that back then navigational aids weren’t precise enough to claim unequivocally this is true. But hey, it makes a great story and I give Captain Phillips high marks for being clever enough to think it all up and be in a place close enough for government work to execute the intent of the maneuver.
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