Last the cruise ship still carrying passengers finally made it to port, arriving in German Bremerhaven on Monday after a 6-month odyssey during the coronavirus pandemic.
All the remaining 8 passengers aboard the MV Artania were able to disembark shore from a ship that departed for a 140-day cruise from Hamburg on Dec. 21.
In March, 36 passengers tested positive for the coronavirus after passengers were checked by doctors when the ship arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia. Those infected have been quarantined at local hospitals, cruise operator Phoenix Reisen told the media.
Not sure about physical distancing, but hundreds of people lined up to see the cruise ship MV Artania leave Fremantle port this afternoon #perthnews pic.twitter.com/bCZQiAC0b9
— Ben Gubana (@bengubana) April 18, 2020
Three people on board died: 2 male passengers aged 69 and 71 and a 42-year-old crew member.
Healthy ship passengers remained in quarantine on board until their return flight home at the end of March.
Hundreds of passengers flew back to Frankfurt, although some remained in an Australian hospital until they recovered. The last 8 passengers chose to go home by ship rather than air, thus becoming the last cruise ship passengers to remain at sea as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the world.
On April 18, the Artania liner left the Australian port and sailed back to Europe, which should have taken several weeks, but the ship was making stops in Southeast Asia to disembark many of the remaining crew members.
Approximately 75 crew members remained on board as far as Bremerhaven to help with the work ship whose captain, Morten Hansen, star of the German reality show Crazy for the Sea, kept passengers and families up to date on his Facebook page.
Hansen even celebrated Mother's Day by deviating slightly from his planned itinerary to “draw” the contours of the heart.
And just before leaving the port in the city of Perth, 2 crew members decided to tie the knot and got married during the ceremony at which she sent service to G Abriel Maluga, Consul of Germany, reports CNN Travel.
