Stranded

Panic infects a cruise ship as Covid runs through the passengers and crew. Adapted from the new book Cabin Fever

- Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin

At 5 a.m., George Covrig walked into the packed kitchen of the cruise ship MS Zaandam and asked in a booming voice, “What do you need?”

It was March 27, 2020, the dawn of the pandemic, and the Zaandam had been at sea off South America for almost three weeks as country after country slammed shut its ports. Covid-19 was tearing through the Zaandam, and Covrig was one of a dozen crew members from the MS Rotterdam, a sister ship in the Holland America Line fleet, who’d come aboard to help. As the volunteers boarded the Zaandam, hundreds of passengers not showing signs of illness were being transferred to the Rotterdam. Both ships now sat at the entrance to the Panama Canal, while Holland America tried to persuade the Panamanian authorities to let them pass through on the way to Florida.

It was Covrig’s first shift in the kitchen. He knew the workers had been through hell and were desperate for an extra pair of hands, but he wasn’t prepared for the scene in front of him. The staff members looked beyond exhausted, mentally and physically, and long deprived of hope. A woman from housekeeping, starting yet another 14-hour shift delivering meals, began to sob. “You’re here. I can’t believe it. You’re here!” she cried. She seemed unable to fathom how anyone would volunteer to help them out of this harrowing mess. “I can’t believe it,” she said again.