Hendrik Keijer Interviewed by The New York Times on Cruise Ship Morgues
Lauren McCarthy with The New York Times reached out to Capt. Hendrik Keijer to discuss the way cruise lines handle on-board deaths and the expectations of a ship's morgue. A lawsuit brought by a widow against Celebrity Cruises alleges that they stored her husband’s body in a beverage cooler rather than the ship’s morgue, where it became “horrifically decomposed.”
Like all cruise ships, the Celebrity Equinox, which is registered in Malta and can carry up to 2,852 people, is required to have a morgue because onboard deaths are not uncommon, said Hendrik Keijer, a marine operations expert who served for 10 years as a captain on Holland America Line cruise ships.
“For some people it is their last vacation, unfortunately,” Mr. Keijer said. “That’s why morgues are onboard.”
Read the full story:
A Widow Said Her Husband Was Left in a Drinks Cooler After Dying on a Cruise
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