Here is a wonderful sea story which appears to be more or less true. RMS Warrimoo was an Australian/New Zealand passenger ship, launched in 1892. The ship is best remembered for crossing the intersection of the international dateline and the equator at precisely the turn of the century from 1899 to 1900. Here is how the story is usually told:
The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was latitude 0 degrees x 31 minutes north and longitude 179 degrees x 30 minutes west.
The date was 30 December 1899. Know what this means? First Mate Payton broke in, we’re only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line.
Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check and double check the ship’s position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather and clear night worked in his favor. At midnight the Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line!
The consequences of this bizarre position were many. The forward part of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle of summer. The stern was in the Northern Hemisphere and in the middle of winter. The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899. Forward it was 1 January 1900.
This ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different seasons and two different years but in two different centuries-all at the same time.
This is a great sea story, but did it happen? It looks like it may have, or at least came close to happening.
According to the Company of Master Mariners of Australia website, Captain J (John) D. S. Phillips was Master of 3326 tons R.M.S. WARRIMOO of the Canadian – Australian Lines in at least 1899 and 1900; he is listed as Master when the (Sydney) Evening News of October 17, 1900, reported RMS WARRIMOO as arriving Sydney on October 16 1900 from Vancouver via Honolulu and Brisbane with 32 passengers on board (all named except 3 children, a maid and 3 steerage passengers). She was also reported at Brisbane on April 28 and July 23, 1900, but the Master was not named on those occasions.
So, it appears that RMS Warrimoo was in the right ocean at more or less about the right time.
The only aspect of the story that is odd is the initial date and coordinates given on most versions of the story, which is December 30, and roughly 30 minutes of latitude and longitude from the intersection of the equator and the dateline. That put the ship slightly over 40 nautical miles away from the critical crossing point.
Based on the fact that the position was taken based on a starsight, that would make the time in the early evening, the day before New Year’s Eve. So, with a speed of around 14.5 knots, the ship would arrive at the crossing almost a day early.
On the other hand, if the date was really the 31st and not the 30th, the ship would have arrived either on time or late, depending on how long it took the Mate to reduce his star sights and so on.
The other wrinkle is that even if everything happened exactly as described, the accuracy of celestial navigation using a sextant and a chronometer is at best a mile, and in practice is often two or three miles, so there is a good chance that the 347′ long ship was a few thousand feet off, all other things being equal.
Regardless of what literally occurred the story about the RMS Warrimoo on the equator and dateline on exactly midnight 1900 is a wonderful sea story, worth retelling.
Happy New Year to all, wherever you be on the briny globe.
Thanks to Alan Rice for contributing to this post.
Even this charming story is true, it is basically a waste of time. My astronomer friends all ask: “Why do we have to explain this again every 100 years?” Since we don’t start calendars with a year zero, starting on 1 January year 01 instead, the first decade ends at the END not the BEGINNING of year 10. Similarly, the first century ends at the END, not the BEGINNING of the year 100, and the pattern persists! It therefore follows that like all centuries and millennia, the century in question turned not at the beginning of the year 1900, but the end of 1900, from 31 December 1900 to 01 January 1901, and the Warrimoo was a year early. Apparently people get so excited by multiple zeros that they lose their ability to count time, and always want to celebrate early. As an aside, on the actual turn of the current millennium, I spent New Years Eve, 31 Dec 2000 in the Marshall Islands, and on New Years Day, 01 Jan 2001, I got on an airplane and flew to Honolulu, arriving there on New Years Eve, 31 Dec 2000 again, able to celebrate the true turn of the millennium twice. In any case, a happy New Year 2019 to all.
A perfect New Year’s story on New Year’s Day!
Thanks Rick! Keep them coming!
Even if not caring about navigational accuracy, the issue is far more complex. First, only considering geographical and not political lines, whem crossing the “date-line” from west to east, one has to subtract 1 day (remember “Around the World in 80 Days”?) Being so, on one minute before midnight, on Dec 31, on west side of the line, it will be one minute before midnight, Dec 30, on east side. Two minutes later, it will be Jan 01 on the west side and Dec 31 on the east side. Both side ARE on the same hour, but in different days, because the date line runs in the middle of the 12 hour time zone, west side being +12 and east side being -12.
But, to be true, nowadays, the issue is even more complex, once the political date line is far from a straight line. By the Equator, on the south side, Kiribati has brought the date line some 2 hours to the west. Total mess…