Lifeless Crewmembers Caught Aboard Cargo Ships

COVID-19 has pressured everybody within the provide chain to take all kinds of precautionary measures to stop the virus’ unfold, however strict and sometimes uneven guidelines throughout the transport business has led to morbid actions taken by ocean freighters.

On Nov. 19, the Wall Avenue Journal reported on quite a few situations by which the our bodies of crewmembers who’ve died aboard cargo ships throughout voyages have needed to be stowed in onboard meals freezers as a result of restrictions at many ports stop the unloading of our bodies suspected of being contaminated with the coronavirus.

The Journal notes that whereas the pandemic’s impacts have continued to ease, these restrictions stay, and it usually leaves ships to traverse oceans in the hunt for a port the place they’ll offload their fallen crewmember. We’re not simply speaking a couple of day or two. Corpses may be caught on cargo ships for months at a time, says the report.

The Journal detailed how the captain of a cargo ship that departed India died this previous April whereas the vessel was off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. His physique was put within the ship’s walk-in freezer, and it spent six months in there because the ship traveled 1000’s of miles and petitioned 13 completely different international locations to obtain the physique till it was lastly offloaded in October.

Equally, the report detailed, a 23-year-old crewmember of a Swiss-flagged bulk service died this previous September from an obvious suicide whereas the ship was anchored at a southeast China port. After Chinese language authorities refused to take the physique, the ship traveled virtually two months and over 5,000 miles to Vancouver, Canada, the place the Royal Canadian Mounted Police agreed to repatriate the physique, which nonetheless wasn’t dwelling as of the Nov. 19 report.

As of that date, the Worldwide Maritime Group mentioned there have been 4 corpses caught aboard cargo ships, together with 36 pressing instances involving medical or humanitarian emergencies.