It is possible Travel back in time or even in two different centuries? Essentially not. But a particular event, recorded in an old logbook made famous by the Chronicles, may give us an opportunity to cast doubt on the certainty of our answers.
It was the night of December 31, 1899, when the SS Warrimo, an Australian steamer operated by the New Zealand & Australian Steamship Company, headed for the calm waters of the Pacific Ocean midway from Canada to Sydney. Launched in the shipyards of old England, Warrimo was 105 meters long and capable of carrying passengers and cargo that needed refrigeration. Warrimo was under the command of Captain John DS Phillipsskilled and experienced navigator who somehow wanted to “defy time”, perhaps after learning that writer Mark Twain, author of “Following the Equator”, had written some jokes about it while on board his ship.
Indeed, a few turns before midnight, Phillips appears to have been on the bridge awaiting the first officer’s information FJ Bayldon, who had received orders to calculate a star point to bring the ship, which was busy keeping its course, to a certain coordinate. The result, obtained through a series of calculations that we, land or fresh water people, at least, cannot easily understand, was based on the previous hours. But considering the direction, the sustained speed, and all the variables of the case, it was enough to satisfy the captain, who was determined to smoke a cigar while in the internal saloon was a step away from seeing the arrival of the to celebrate the “new year”. prepared to enter the story individually. Phillips had indeed realized that, given the position reached by the ship, it was possible to cross the equator exactly at midnight, in accordance with the “date line”, by maneuvering at will. Making sure that his ship – officially Australian territory – was at the same time and therefore at the same time “in two different days, months, seasons and years, but above all in two different centuries”.
After communicating the “feat” to his officers, he instructed the bridge to prepare to maneuver to keep the ship in this unique “space-time” state for as long as possible. Thus, between 1899 and 1900, the steamer Warrimo, ruled by the eccentric Australian merchant marine captain, found herself crossing the 180° East meridian between the islands of Ellice and Phoenix – i.e. on the “imaginary” line of the 1884 date change. And it was, at least in the fictional tradition, worthy of the bet Phileas Fogg made in Jules Verne’s famous novel Around the World in 80 Days. At the same time, Warrimo’s bow was actually in the southern hemisphere, ie in the summer season, while her stern, only 150 meters away, followed her from the northern hemisphere, ie in the winter season. So while at the stern it was officially December 31, 1899, at 105 meters or a little less the first day of January 1900 was being celebrated (although formally the beginning of the twentieth century was celebrated on January 1, 1901, ed.) .
The unique “Golden Shellback” adventure of Captain Phillips and the Warrimo – in Anglo-Saxon tradition, Shellbacks are sailors who ritually became “sons of Neptune” after crossing the equator – ended with a record that made history. Although not essentially verifiable given the rudimentary instrumentation of this historical period. And this despite the fact that the secret of that night was jealously guarded by Phillips and his family until retirement age.
It was not until 1942, when the Warrimo, which had been converted into a troop transport during World War I, had already been lying at the bottom of the Mediterranean for some time next to the French destroyer Catapulte, which had sunk her when she was hit with the explosion of her cargo depth in 1918, did a Canadian journalist visit the Ottawa Journal Captain Phillips to bring to light this strange turn-of-the-century voyage. Telling the world how it was possible to “travel through time” while relying on a top speed of just 14.5 knots.