Your Cruise Ship Has a Morgue and Most Passengers Have No Idea

There are three confirmed deaths on the MV Hondius, the cruise ship with confirmed cases of Hantavirus, as of this writing. The Andes strain of the virus can jump from human to human and has a fatality rate of nearly 50%.

What is Hantavirus?

The virus is typically contracted through contact with organic matter from infected rodents and is potentially fatal. There are no treatments for it. But the WHO has repeatedly stressed there is a low threat to the public from this outbreak. -nbcnews.com

What happens when you die on a cruise ship?

So, you might be packing your bags for a cruise out of Boston this summer. Flynn Cruiseport is having its biggest season ever, with nearly 4,000 passengers boarding the Norwegian Breakaway alone for trips to Bermuda and Canada. What the brochure does not mention is what is sitting a few decks below the pool bar.

Every major cruise ship has a morgue.

It is not a rumor. Around 200 people die on cruise ships every single year. The most common causes are heart attacks, strokes, and other age-related conditions, since a large portion of cruise passengers are older adults. With tens of millions of people cruising annually, the math makes a morgue a necessity, not a luxury. -cruisevacationplanner.com

The morgue is tucked on one of the lower decks, away from passenger areas. It is a small refrigerated space designed to store bodies until the ship reaches a port where the deceased can be properly transported to a funeral home. Most ships have room for three or four bodies, and the morgue must be kept away from food storage areas.

A body can stay on the ship for up to a week. It has to reach a port that is willing and able to inspect the remains, issue a death certificate, and arrange to fly the body home. A lot of ports cannot handle that, so the ship keeps moving until it finds one that can.

Most passengers never know any of this is happening one deck below them.