Finally on land: Eight cruise passengers return home after months at sea amid pandemic
After a months-long saga, eight cruise ship passengers have finally set foot on dry land.
The Artania, a Bahamian-flagged ship operated by German company Phoenix Reisen since 2011, is currently docked in Bremerhaven according to Phoenix Reisen’s ship locator and MarineTraffic, a ship tracking site. It arrived Monday morning at 10:45 local time, according to the website for the port of Bremen/Bremerhaven.
The ship was carrying eight passengers and a team of around 75 crew members, for the last leg of its voyage according to a May 1 statement posted to the Phoenix Reisen website.
And before it began the final stretch it deposited remaining crew members in Indonesia and the Philippines. When the statement was released on May 1, Phoenix Reisen estimated the ship would reach Bremerhaven in early June after completing a trek amounting to about 10,000 nautical miles.
The Artania’s arrival in Bremerhaven came after a multi-pronged journey to return its crew and passengers home as the coronavirus pandemic raged on across the globe, having infected upwards of seven million people worldwide as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins data.
The ship was quarantined in the Western Australian port of Fremantle for two weeks due to coronavirus before beginning its journey back to Bremerhaven, according to an April 20 release posted on the cruise line’s website. At least three people who had been on the ship died of COVID-19, including one crew member. The Australian Broadcast Company reported that the 42-year-old employee also had an underlying health condition.
According to the Phoenix Reisen website, Artania’s quarantine began April 3, after at least 36 people onboard had tested positive for coronavirus in late March.
On March 15, after learning that ports in the South Pacific would be closed, Phoenix Reisen gave passengers the opportunity to return home on charter flights or to remain on the ship for the journey home. And on March 16, 199 passengers chose to return home and 832 remained on board with 515 crew members.
Later, on March 25, while the ship stopped in Fremantle to refuel, people on board began exhibiting coronavirus symptoms, and local authorities found that seven of nine people tested were positive. They were taken to local hospitals.
On March 29, another 860 passengers and crew members were flown back to Germany on four chartered planes. More than 800 of the people who flew back were passengers, but 16 passengers chose to remain onboard.
MS Artania left Australia on April 17, after completing its 14-day quarantine. During its time in port, the ship was cleaned and disinfected by local authorities, according to Phoenix Reisen. Just over 400 other crew members remained on board when the ship departed Australia.
Around the same time shoreside, 41 nonessential European crew members flew home from Perth. They were joined by 18 passengers who had been quarantined in hotels due to positive COVID-19 tests but were later deemed healthy. Another eight who completed their quarantine re-boarded the ship to make their way back to Germany.
USA TODAY has reached out to Phoenix Reisen for comment.
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