[BITList] Freak of Navigation

[John Feltham]

Good ones keep on coming around…


Freak of Navigation
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 result to the master, Captain John Phillips.
The Warrimoo's position was LAT. 0 degrees 31' N and LON. 179 degrees 30'W.
The date was 30 December 1899.
First Mate Payton broke in....."You know what this means.....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 this 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 favour.
At midnight the SS Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crosses the International Date Line.
 
The consequences of this bizarre position were several.
 The bow 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 years and two different seasons, but in two different centuries all at the same time.
 




ooroo


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