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February 7, 2025
In the spring of 2001, our family embarked on what we thought would be a typical spring break cruise.
Little did we know, this trip would become memorable for more than just the scenic destinations.
At the time, the kids were seven and five years old.
We sailed from Ft. Lauderdale on Holland America's ms Maasdam on a 7-day itinerary that took us to the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cancun, Mexico.
On the first night of the cruise, we stopped by the Ocean Bar for an after dinner drink and met the ship's doctor who was traveling with his wife.
At the time, a doctor with emergency medicine experience could get a free two-week cruise in return for working several hours a day as the ship's doctor.
There were full time nurses on board to assist and outside of office hours the doctor was free to enjoy the cruise as would any other passenger.
Throughout the week we ran into the doctor multiple times including several late evenings at the Ocean Bar.
On the fifth day of the cruise, we stopped at Ocho Rios, Jamaica and we took the kids on the afternoon snorkel trip to see what the world looked like under water.
Everyone in the group was wearing an inflatable life vest and we traveled to the snorkel site on a catamaran sailboat.
That evening we met the doctor at the Ocean Bar and mentioned that we had been on the snorkel excursion.
He asked us which excursion we had been on - the morning one or the afternoon one.
We told him afternoon - and that is when he told us that sadly, a gentleman on the morning tour that day had suffered a heart attack during the excursion and had passed away.
Because he was wearing the life vest - and floating about like the others - no one on the tour realized he was in trouble until it was too late.
Shocked by the news, we asked the doctor if he had ever faced such a situation before.
He smiled wryly and told us that this wasn't his first brush with death at sea.
He then shared a story from years earlier...
It was a story about the time he was serving as the doctor for the first two weeks of the World Cruise on Holland American's ss Rotterdam.
It was the first time serving as a ship's doctor.
At the time the Rotterdam was the oldest ship in the fleet and at the age of 30 she was still a classic beauty but lacked some of the facilities you might find on a contemporary cruise ship.
Since a World Cruise lasts several months and costs a lot of money, they usually attract an older crowd - much older than a typical cruise.
The passenger make up is sometimes described as a combination of - the newly wed and nearly dead.
Well, the doctor's flight was delayed on the day of departure, so he ended up boarding the ship just before sailing time.
It was his first time on the Rotterdam, so he had a brief tour of the medical facility and then headed to his cabin exhausted from the long day of travel.
Sometime after midnight there was a knock on the door from one of the nurses who was also new to the ship.
She said that one of the male passengers had reportedly been found unresponsive by his cabin mate and needed medical attention.
The doctor grabbed his bag and he and the nurse hurried to the cabin.
When they arrived, is was clear that the man was dead and that there was nothing they could do for him.
But they could not just leave him in the cabin, so they reluctantly woke up the captain and asked him what they should do with the body.
Since the captain was new to the Rotterdam, he was not aware that the ship actually had a small morgue located in the bow between two cargo hatches.
After a brief discussion, the group came up with a plan where they would temporarily store the body in the refrigerated storage area of the ship's Flower Shop until morning and then figure out a more long-term solution after they were able to contact local authorities at the next port of call.
They key to this plan was to get back to the Flower Shop before the florist got there - or they might be dealing with a second body.
The next morning, one of the longer serving junior officers alerted the Captain to the existence of the morgue and the body was moved there until the ship arrived at the first port of call from where it was flown home for burial.
As the cruise continued, we carried on with our plans, but the doctor's stories lingered in my mind.
It was a reminder that even in the most carefree settings, unexpected events can unfold, and behind every trip, there are stories that go untold.
