At the turn of February-March 2024, news spread on the Internet: supposedly parties with the distribution of free ice cream on board cruise ships are organized when it is necessary to make room in the refrigerator for the corpses of passengers. We decided to check how true these messages are.
Many Russians spoke about the shocking news (“Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Channel 5", TV channels "360°" And "78", "New hearth", Men Today) and Ukrainian (TSN, Liga.net, "Apostrophe", "Focus") media. Social network users are discussing it (“VKontakte", Telegram, X) And blogging platforms. This one appeared information and on thematic resources dedicated to travel, as well as on entertaining portals.
Most of the Russian-language publications on this topic were based on reports from Western tabloids like The New York Post And Daily Mail. They, in turn, referred to video, which was published on TikTok by American singer Dara Starr Tucker on February 20, 2024. Answering questions from subscribers in the comments, she said that often when free ice cream is given out on board a cruise ship, it means that the morgue does not have enough space for the bodies of deceased passengers and the food refrigerator needs to be emptied urgently. At the time of writing this analysis, the video has collected 2.9 million views.
There are several reasons to doubt the reliability of Tucker's story. According to her, she worked on a cruise ship about ten years ago and not only did not personally encounter the practice she described, but also had no connection at all with the medical services, which should be responsible for such situations, or with the kitchen, whose employees monitor where food is stored. Tucker worked as a singer on cruises, and her story, by her own admission, is based on the stories of other crew members who allegedly had to place corpses in ice cream refrigerators.
In early March, another TikTok user, Corey Buckner, who, in his own words, works as a medic on cruise ships, reportedthat the situation described by Tucker could very well happen. He noted that the ice cream refrigerator is most convenient for storing the corpses of deceased passengers, since it is a separate small chamber where frozen vegetables and meat are not stored.
At the same time, many Internet users accused Tucker of lying to get attention - the girl even had to film a separate video with excuses. Among those who considered her story was “nonsense”, there were employees cruise companies. In publications on specialized websites and in social networks they claim that they have not personally encountered the practice described and cannot imagine that placing corpses in ice cream refrigerators would be possible.
However, occasionally such cases occur and become a cause for scandal. So, in April 2023, news appeared in the media about lawsuit, brought by one of the passengers of the Celebrity Cruises company (that’s where Tucker worked). A year earlier, 78-year-old Robert Jones was reported to have died on a cruise, and because the refrigeration system in the onboard morgue was inoperable, his body was kept in a drinks cooler for almost a week. Due to unsuitable conditions, the man's corpse began to decompose towards the end of the cruise, so Jones' family had to bury him in a closed coffin.
In the case of Jones, we were talking about force majeure circumstances when the morgue on the ship simply stopped functioning. Tucker also talked about situations when there is not enough space in a specialized room on board due to the large number of deaths during the trip, and, judging by her words, this is by no means uncommon. The author of the viral video claims that on average four to ten people die on each cruise. According to specialized publications, in 2023 there were approximately 300 cruise ships operating in the world. Assuming they each took only one voyage a year, Tucker estimates that between 1,200 and 3,000 people died on cruises last year alone, according to Tucker. In reality, the numbers are apparently much lower. “Verified” was unable to find statistics on deaths during cruises for 2023, however, judging by data, obtained by American researchers from cruise lines, from 2000 to 2019 there were only 623 deaths of passengers and crew members on board. Some media publish others intelligence: supposedly about 200 people die a year on cruise ships, which, however, is still far from Tucker’s estimates.
Stories have surfaced before that ice cream and other food refrigerators may be used to store corpses on cruise ships. IN articles on specialized websites approvedthat such rumors have been circulating for decades. Some media even cite quotes former or current crew members of such airliners who confirm the veracity of allegations of storage of deceased bodies in ice cream refrigerators. However, as in the case of Tucker, none of them witnessed this, they are only retelling stories they heard from someone they knew.
Thus, the media spread the "shocking" news about the "real" reasons for the free ice cream on cruises, citing solely a statement from a singer who worked on one of those cruises many years ago. She, in turn, refers to the stories of her former colleagues, although people who worked and are working on cruise ships mostly deny even the possibility of the events described. In exceptional circumstances, the bodies of the deceased on cruise ships may be stored in a refrigerator intended for food - a similar case occurred, for example, in 2022. However, the crew made this decision only because the cooling system in the ship's morgue was faulty, and the body was stored not in an ice cream refrigerator, but in the drinks compartment. There is no reason to believe that such incidents occur regularly and reflect the widespread practice that has developed on cruise ships. It cannot be ruled out that one day, due to force majeure, the crew of the airliner actually had to place the body of a deceased passenger in an ice cream refrigerator. As a result, a legend was born that if ice cream is given out free to passengers on board, it means they are making room in the refrigerator for a corpse. Now this story is passed on from one cruise ship employee to another and sometimes pops up on the Internet.
Cover photo: pexels.com
Read on the topic:
- Maritime Injury Guide. What Happens When a Passenger Dies on a Cruise Ship?
- The Telegraph. What Happens When Someone Dies on a Cruise?
- Is it true that Egyptian authorities once issued a passport to a mummy?
- Is it true that the Vikings buried their dead in floating boats that were set on fire?
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