We all have our New Year’s Eve stories, some memorable while some we wish we didn’t remember, but one of my favorite New Year’s stories of all time happened 123 years ago, tomorrow. December 31, 1899, Captain John Phillips was navigating the passenger/cargo ship, SS Warrimoo when his crew informed him they were approaching the Equator. Captain Phillips had his navigator double check their position and adjusted the course and speed of the ship so that at exactly 12:00 a.m. the ship lay across 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 December 30th, 1899, while the forward half skipped a day ahead and into January 1st, 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. Now, top that.
