# Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214 "2023-07-18T13:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 88
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1741 "2024-03-07T22:18:11Z")
It might be helpful to note that this ship, by its small change in course, has reputedly done something no other sailing craft has ever done (at least I don’t think so) before or since. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1742 "2024-03-07T22:32:24Z")
If they hadn’t done the course change, would they have arrived at their destination later? Arrived at the wrong destination? Suffered some sort of catastrophe? Was the meeting and course change prior to crossing the International Date Line? Was the course change made purely to accomplish a gimmick relating to the International Date Line? Was the time of day when this happened relevant? Was the time of year relevant? Was the year relevant? I’m guessing that the captain saw the opportunity, just after midnight on New Year’s, to go “back in time” by a year, or possibly even a century, and his officers found the idea amusing enough to agree. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1743 "2024-03-08T01:41:25Z")
If they hadn’t done the course change, would they have arrived at their destination later? Arrived at the wrong destination? Suffered some sort of catastrophe? No. Was the meeting and course change prior to crossing the International Date Line? Yes Was the course change made purely to accomplish a gimmick relating to the International Date Line? Yes ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1744 "2024-03-08T01:46:41Z")
Was the time of day when this happened relevant? Yes Was the time of year relevant? Yes Was the year relevant? Yes I’m guessing that the captain saw the opportunity, just after midnight on New Year’s, to go “back in time” by a year, or possibly even a century, and his officers found the idea amusing enough to agree. Close, but not right. Not sure if such an accomplishment would deserve a wiki page. Of course one could argue this doesn’t deserve a wiki page either…but there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1745 "2024-03-08T02:02:11Z")
Was the date of this incident New Year’s Eve and/or Day? If not New Year’s, was the date of this incident relevantly any other holiday or observance? Was the time of the incident midnight, or in relevant close proximity thereto? Was any other discontinuity in the conventions of timekeeping involved (such as Daylight Saving Time or Leap Day)? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1746 "2024-03-08T02:26:14Z")
reply to Chronos: Was the date of this incident New Year’s Eve and/or Day? Yes If not New Year’s, was the date of this incident relevantly any other holiday or observance? Was the time of the incident midnight, or in relevant close proximity thereto? Yes Was any other discontinuity in the conventions of timekeeping involved (such as Daylight Saving Time or Leap Day)? No ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1747 "2024-03-08T02:30:09Z")
I’m guessing they became the first people to celebrate a special year. To be pedantic, not the beginning of a century but something like 1800, 1900, 2000. That seems where this is headed. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1748 "2024-03-08T02:40:51Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m guessing they became the first people to celebrate a special year. To be pedantic, not the beginning of a century but something like 1800, 1900, 2000. That seems where this is headed. Not this. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1749 "2024-03-08T02:55:20Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Not this. But based on the responses to Chronos, they did cross the IDL right as the year was changing? But it wasn’t a special year like an American ship being the first to be in 1876 (Centennial year)? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1750 "2024-03-08T03:53:44Z")
But based on the responses to Chronos, they did cross the IDL right as the year was changing? But it wasn’t a special year like an American ship being the first to be in 1876 (Centennial year)? No. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1751 "2024-03-08T15:09:29Z")
Did they celebrate an occasion twice? (I knew a travel agent who wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand on consecutive days so he could celebrate New Year’s Eve twice) ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1752 "2024-03-08T18:55:27Z")
Did they celebrate an occasion twice? No (I knew a travel agent who wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand on consecutive days so he could celebrate New Year’s Eve twice) Hint: Forget the people. What did the boat do (according to the story, Snopes cannot confirm) that had never been done before? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1753 "2024-03-08T18:59:35Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Hint: Forget the people. What did the boat do Be in all 4 hemispheres at once? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1754 "2024-03-08T19:01:27Z")
reply to Saint\_Cad: IDK. Be in all 4 hemispheres at once? Yes! Very good! And… ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1755 "2024-03-08T19:09:01Z")
Be in 2 different Milleniums? ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1756 "2024-03-08T19:20:51Z")
reply to Cheesesteak: Be in 2 different Milleniums? Close. The S. S. Warrimoo supposedly changed its course to pass over the equator and the date line at exactly midnight on December 31st 1899. (Now lets not quibble over whether the new century starts in 1900 or 1901). Thus this boat, at the same moment, existed in all four hemispheres, in both winter and summer, in two different days in two different months, in two different years, in two different decades and in two different centuries. I don’t know if anyone tried to top this feat in 2000. > **[SS Warrimoo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Warrimoo)** > > SS Warrimoo was a passenger and refrigerated cargo liner that was launched in 1892 in England for Australian owners, was later owned by two of New Zealand's foremost shipping companies, and finally belonged to a Singaporean company. > Warrimoo was the subject of a claim that she crossed the intersection of the International Date Line and the Equator precisely at the turn of the year from 1899 to 1900. > Warrimoo was a troop ship in the First World War. In 1918 the French destroyer Catapulte colli... ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1757 "2024-03-08T19:23:56Z")
More here: > **[The Strange Tale of SS Warrimoo, the Ship That Existed in Two Centuries at Once](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ss-warimoo-ship-in-two-centuries)** > > On New Year's Eve 1899, the captain of this Pacific liner steamed into history. Or did he? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1758 "2024-03-09T16:24:37Z")
Yay! I knew this one from boating. It’s an incredible story. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1759 "2024-03-09T21:49:28Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Be in 2 different Milleniums? So shouldn’t the answer to this > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m guessing they became the first people to celebrate a special year. To be pedantic, not the beginning of a century but something like 1800, 1900, 2000. That seems where this is headed. have been “yes” not > [@Biotop](#): > > Not this. Even if incomplete? I call Thread Foul ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/1760 "2024-03-09T22:01:01Z")
They weren’t celebrating a special year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=87) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=89)