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| “There is a level of greed on the part of these companies,” he said. “They want to make every penny – and they make money when people are on the ships.” |
'Stranded at sea': cruise ships around the world are adrift as ports turn them away
Coronavirus
outbreak
A Guardian
analysis finds that at least 10 ships – carrying nearly 10,000 passengers –
remain at sea after their destinations refuse them
Erin
McCormick in San Francisco
Fri 27 Mar
2020 11.00 GMTLast modified on Fri 27 Mar 2020 15.53 GMT
Ports
around the globe are turning cruise ships away en masse amid the corona
pandemic, leaving thousands of passengers stranded even as some make desperate
pleas for help while sickness spreads aboard.
A Guardian
analysis of ship tracking data has found that, as of Thursday, at least 10
ships around the world – carrying nearly 10,000 passengers – are still stuck at
sea after having been turned away from their destination ports in the face of
the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the ships are facing increasingly desperate
medical situations, including one carrying hundreds of American, Canadian,
Australian and British passengers, currently off the coast of Ecuador and
seeking permission to dock in Florida.
The Holland
America ship Zaandam, which has been stranded for days after Chile refused to
allow the ship to dock in its original destination of San Antonio on 21 March,
reportedly has 140 cases of respiratory illness on board, with some passengers
needing breathing support.
The ship is
steaming up the coast of South America, hoping to make it through the Panama
Canal and dock in Florida. But the Florida port, where many of the passengers
had planned to disembark on the final leg of the cruise, has refused to confirm
that the ship can land.
While the
Zaandam and at least two other ships still carrying passengers at sea have
reported outbreaks of coronavirus-like respiratory illness onboard, other ships
are being turned away from docking and unloading their passengers even with no
signs of illness at all.
‘We need
help’
Dramatic
scenes of coronavirus-stricken cruises, such as the Grand Princess in
California and the Diamond Princess in Japan, have become synonymous with the
pandemic. The plight of those still adrift highlights how cruise ships have
become a kind of pariah of the seas, with cities wary of becoming the next home
for a potentially infected vessel.
On the
Zaandam, which was headed northeast along the coast of Ecuador on Thursday,
anxiety was growing.
Passengers
who spoke with the Guardian describe being locked down in the cabins, with
three daily meals left on the floor outside their doors. Meanwhile the number
of people reporting influenza-like symptoms has almost tripled this week: 56
passengers and 89 crew members, passengers say the ship’s captain has told
them. Four elderly passengers reportedly required oxygen.
But on
Tuesday a port commission in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, delayed approving the
Zaandam’s request, with some commissioners arguing the ship should be turned
away because it didn’t originate in Florida, and others calling the situation a
humanitarian crisis and saying the passengers should be allowed to disembark,
according to the Miami Herald.
Amid the
confusion, passengers began an online lobbying campaign to convince Florida
officials to allow the boat to dock. “I am a US citizen and longtime Florida
resident who is stranded at sea off the coast of South America,” wrote
passenger Laura Gabaroni Huergo on Facebook on Wednesday. “Some (Florida)
county officials are trying to turn us away and abandon us at sea to fend for
ourselves. We need help getting a plan together to dock and return to our
lives.”
Holland
America said this week it had dispatched support in the form of another cruise
ship carrying 611 extra staff, supplies and coronavirus test kits to meet up
with the Zaandam, and that the cruise line is looking for alternative locations
to disembark passengers.
“As all
ports along Zaandam’s route are closed to cruise ships, Holland America Line
has deployed Rotterdam [the support vessel] to rendezvous with Zaandam and
provide extra supplies, staff, Covid-19 test kits and other support as needed,”
the company announced on Tuesday.
As of
Thursday, the Guardian had identified five ships in the Americas that were
unable to unload nearly 6,000 passengers. At least three other ships were
having trouble off the coast of Australia, including one which sought urgent
medical attention for an outbreak of respiratory illness. Two more ships were
trying to get passengers to ports in Italy.
Lori
Bessler, a southern California resident whose parents are stuck onboard the
Coral Princess, another boat stranded off the coast of Brazil with no reported
illness onboard, says she is nonetheless concerned for her family’s health and
wellbeing. “My mom and stepdad are diabetics and … we’re very concerned about
them having enough medication to sustain them,” she told the Guardian.
The Coral
Princess was due to dock in Buenos Aires on 18 March but is now headed for
Florida. So far the cruise ship has only been allowed to disembark passengers
from South America; more than a thousand US, Canadian and British citizens,
including Bessler’s parents, remain on the ship.
Bessler
said she has struggled to get information from either the cruise company or
from US government officials. She worries that Florida may become overrun by
Covid-19 cases by the time the ship arrives there in two weeks.
“It’s a
scary situation,” said Bessler, who has been texting with her mom many times a
day. “I think they need to be rescued and brought to their homes.”
‘There is a
level of greed’
The
fast-moving nature of the virus has added to the confusion – when many
passengers left for vacations in early March there were no cases of Covid-19 in
South America, so they thought it would be safe to travel.
But Ross
Klein, a professor at St John’s College in Newfoundland who has written four
books on the cruise industry, said companies should have acted weeks earlier to
cancel trips and refund customers. He noted that cases of cruise ships being
turned away from ports as a result of coronavirus fears began as early as
January and escalated in February, with passengers being quarantined on the
Emerald Princess in Japan on 3 February.
“There is a
level of greed on the part of these companies,” he said. “They want to make
every penny – and they make money when people are on the ships.”
Cruise
ships are drawing increasing government scrutiny for not doing enough to
protect their passengers during this pandemic. In Florida, the attorney
general’s office is investigating potentially misleading sales practices, after
the Miami New Times obtained leaked emails showing representatives for
Norwegian Cruise Lines may have downplayed the coronavirus in sales pitches to
passengers, even as the pandemic was disrupting trips. “The Coronavirus can
only survive in cold temperatures, so the Caribbean is a fantastic choice for
your next cruise,” said one sales script obtained by the paper.
Despite
Donald Trump’s repeated vows to bail out the cruise ship industry, money for
cruise companies was not a part of the $500bn in aid for large employers
included in stimulus bill passed by Congress on Wednesday.
Most of the
major cruise operators register their companies in countries such as Panama and
Liberia, thereby avoiding most US taxes and labor laws. Thus, the cruise
industry’s trade group said on Thursday the companies will not have access to
the US aid for large employers, according to the Washington Post.
Meanwhile a
report from the US Centers for Disease Control this week laid the blame on
cruise ships for spreading the virus in the crucial early weeks of the
outbreak, linking hundreds of cases to the Diamond Princess and Grand Princess.
“Cruise
ships are often settings for outbreaks of infectious diseases because of their
closed environment, contact between travelers from many countries, and crew
transfers between ships,” the CDC report concluded.
Back aboard
the Zaandam, passengers are passing the time however they can. Some chat with
other cabins on a Facebook group, others enjoy the free liquor, snap pictures
of brown boobies flying outside their windows, or partake in meditation, yoga
classes and a daily quiz offered via the ship’s TV. Passengers joke the top
quiz prize should be extra face masks or toilet paper, or a chance to get
outside and do laps around the promenade deck.
Jamsheed
Master, one of the ship’s piano players, wrote on Facebook that he has composed
a thousand songs during his confinement.
But despite
moments of levity, the situation is bleak.
“I’m safe
and healthy right now. Staying confined in my cabin except for the strange
ritual of eating meals in the crew mess while maintaining a safe distance from
each other,” he wrote on Monday. “I won’t lie: things are looking grim here and
I just want to go home. We all do.”
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