Is it true that the bodies of people who have died on cruises are stored in ice cream coolers?

Former cruise ship singers record, which became an internet sensation, appeared on the Tiktok platform on February 24 this year. In it, she did not hide the fact that she did not personally encounter the storage and transportation of the bodies of dead passengers, but told everything only from hearsay:

“If the crew suddenly organizes a free ice cream party for the passengers, it’s often because more people have died on board than there is room in the morgue. (..)

I was a singer on a cruise ship about 10 years ago and lived on board in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for about 6 months.

Fortunately, I did not have to face such a situation. However, I’ve been friends with a few crew members who have, and they said between 4 and 10 people die on each cruise. (..)

On a ship like ours with 2,500 to 3,000 passengers, 4 to 10 people die on a normal cruise, so the morgue, they said, has room for about 7 bodies, and if more than seven people died on a particular ship, they would have to start put the bodies in the freezer.”

When commentators noticed that cruises usually don’t kill an average of ten people, as the singer claimed, this shot backthat he was talking about a particular liner with an average passenger age of about 75.

Reminded me of another event

In the latest published on this topic by D. Tucker in the videoshe speculated that perhaps her story became so famous in the world media because it reminded readers of another the event – when the body of a man who died on a cruise ship in 2022 was kept in a drinks fridge.

According to the singer, she worked exactly on the ship where this incident took place – on the Equinox liner of the “Celebrity cruises” company.

This story became a sensation, and the family of the deceased sued the company for desecration of the body.

However, in that case, the body was not kept in a designated room, not because of an excess of dead, but because the morgue simply did not work for technical reasons.

Read more: Dead man’s body kept in cruise ship’s drinks fridge for 6 days: widow seeks justice

Hygiene standards and mandatory morgue

Cruise lines adhere to the strictest and highest standards of food storage and hygiene standards – from loading the food on board to serving it to the guests.

Cruise ships carry millions of passengers every year, so it’s not uncommon for deaths to occur on them. Most ships are required to have a morgue and extra body bags in case of an emergency.

A morgue, usually a small stainless steel cold room on the lowest deck of a ship, holds between 2 and 10 bodies, depending on the size of the ship.

When a passenger or crew member dies, ship officials notify shore authorities, and a medical team assesses the body and moves it to a morgue, where it is kept until repatriation can be arranged.

Most of the time, the body is removed at the next port of call, but sometimes the body remains on the ship until the end of the journey.

Read more: Secrets of cruise ships: the morgues on them are certainly not the only shocking surprise

There are far fewer deaths

There are relatively few sources that provide statistics on cruise ship deaths. The study, which analyzed data between 2000 and 2019, was published in the International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health.

All passenger and crew mortality data were obtained from 78 registered ocean and river cruise lines worldwide.

During that time, 623 deaths were reported.

Of all deaths, 89 percent passenger deaths and 11 percent – crew deaths.

The population of the United States accounted for 61 percent. passenger deaths, while the most crew members died from India (18%) and the Philippines (17%).

The main causes of passenger death were falling overboard or below deck (23%), suicide, homicide and terrorist attack (19%), unspecified natural causes (18%) and cardiovascular disease (16%).

The main causes of death for crew members were suicide or homicide (29 percent), falling overboard or from a height (24 percent).

Carnival Cruise Lines (29%), Royal Caribbean Cruises (12%) and Norwegian Cruise Line (10%) had the most passenger deaths.

The largest number of crew members died on liners operated by Carnival Cruise Line (19%) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (19%).

15 minutes verdict: lie. D. Tucker does not provide any evidence to support his words. While there was indeed a similar incident on a cruise liner, it was an isolated incident that did not happen for the reasons she listed. Cruise ship mortality statistics also do not support her claims.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.