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Great Sea Story
- Thread starter dolfinbill
- Start date
dolfinbill
New member
GREAT SEA STORY
SS Warrimoo
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 Captain John
D.S. Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo's position was LAT 0º 31' N and LONG
179 30' W. The date was 31 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 & 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 & clear night worked in his favor.
At mid-night the SS 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 (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere & in the
middle of summer.
The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere & in the middle of winter.
The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899.
In the bow (forward) part it was 1 January 1900.
This ship was therefore not only in:
Two different days,
Two different months,
Two different years,
Two different seasons
But in two different centuries - all at the same time.
SS Warrimoo
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 Captain John
D.S. Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo's position was LAT 0º 31' N and LONG
179 30' W. The date was 31 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 & 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 & clear night worked in his favor.
At mid-night the SS 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 (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere & in the
middle of summer.
The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere & in the middle of winter.
The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899.
In the bow (forward) part it was 1 January 1900.
This ship was therefore not only in:
Two different days,
Two different months,
Two different years,
Two different seasons
But in two different centuries - all at the same time.
The Smokester
New member
That's pretty good. I tried to have two New Years Eves coming back from India a few years ago. Unfortunately, an unforeseen layover in Hong Kong screwed up the timing. Had to settle for a second Singapore Sling in, appropriately, Singapore.
Daydreamer
SAILOR
Clever! And I get confused with daylight savings time.
In 1895, 5 years before the New Years navigational oddity of 1900 aboard WARRIMOO as told by DOLFIN Bill, there was a passenger aboard WARRIMOO named Mark Twain, bound for Australia. Mark Twain at the time was in dire financial difficulties and had embarked on an around the world speaking tour during which he also wrote ‘Following the Equator,’ his account of the journey. In it, he notes the moment the WARRIMOO crossed the equator:
A sailor explained to a young girl that the ship’s speed is poor because we are climbing up the bulge toward the center of the globe; but that when we should once get over, at the equator, and start down-hill, we should fly.
Afternoon. Crossed the Equator. In the distance it looked like a blue ribbon stretched across the ocean. Several passengers kodak’d it.
Three days later, Mark Twain described crossing the International Dateline:
While we were crossing the 180th meridian it was Sunday in the stern of the ship where my family were, and Tuesday in the bow where I was. They were there eating the half of a fresh apple pie on the 8th, and I was at the same time eating the other half of it on the 10th–and I could notice how stale it was, already. The family were the same age that they were when I had left them five minutes before, but I was a day older now than I was then. The day they were living in stretched behind them half way round the globe, across the Pacific Ocean and America and Europe; the day I was living in stretched in front of me around the other half to meet it.
Along about the moment that we were crossing the Great Meridian a child was born in the steerage, and now there is no way to tell which day it was born on. The nurse thinks it was Sunday, the surgeon thinks it was Tuesday. The child will never know its own birthday. It will always be choosing first one and then the other, and will never be able to make up its mind permanently. This will breed vacillation and uncertainty in its opinions about religion, and politics, and business, and sweethearts, and everything, and will undermine its principles, and rot them away, and make the poor thing characterless, and its success in life impossible.
A sailor explained to a young girl that the ship’s speed is poor because we are climbing up the bulge toward the center of the globe; but that when we should once get over, at the equator, and start down-hill, we should fly.
Afternoon. Crossed the Equator. In the distance it looked like a blue ribbon stretched across the ocean. Several passengers kodak’d it.
Three days later, Mark Twain described crossing the International Dateline:
While we were crossing the 180th meridian it was Sunday in the stern of the ship where my family were, and Tuesday in the bow where I was. They were there eating the half of a fresh apple pie on the 8th, and I was at the same time eating the other half of it on the 10th–and I could notice how stale it was, already. The family were the same age that they were when I had left them five minutes before, but I was a day older now than I was then. The day they were living in stretched behind them half way round the globe, across the Pacific Ocean and America and Europe; the day I was living in stretched in front of me around the other half to meet it.
Along about the moment that we were crossing the Great Meridian a child was born in the steerage, and now there is no way to tell which day it was born on. The nurse thinks it was Sunday, the surgeon thinks it was Tuesday. The child will never know its own birthday. It will always be choosing first one and then the other, and will never be able to make up its mind permanently. This will breed vacillation and uncertainty in its opinions about religion, and politics, and business, and sweethearts, and everything, and will undermine its principles, and rot them away, and make the poor thing characterless, and its success in life impossible.
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Yea, that gogdanged date line does me the same every time as well. I always thought I'd rather fly over it than sail over it, but it's probably the same confusion no matter what. Sorta like going through a time warp....I just have to agree in my mind that wherever I am, that's the day and time someone tells me it is.
