At the turn of February-March 2024, the news parted on the Internet: supposedly parties with distributing free ice cream on board cruise liners are arranged when in the refrigerator you need to make room for the corpses of passengers. We decided to check how true these messages are.
Many Russian ones spoke about shocking news ("Komsomolskaya Truth","Fifth channel", TV channels"360 °" And "78","New hearth" Men Today) and Ukrainian (TSN, Liga.net, "Apostrophe","Focus") Media. It is discussed by users of social networks ("VKontakte" Telegram, X) And Platform blog. This one appeared information and on thematic resources dedicated to travel, as well as entertainment Portals.
Most of the Russian -language publications on this subject were based on messages of Western tabloids like The New York Post And Daily Mail. They, in turn, referred to videoWhich on February 20, 2024 was published in Tiktok, American singer Dara Starr Tucker. Answering the questions of the subscribers in the comments, she said that often, when free ice cream is handed out on board the cruise lighter, this means that there is not enough space for the bodies of dead passengers in the morgue and it is urgent to free the food refrigerator. At the time of writing this analysis, the video collected 2.9 million views.
There are several reasons at once to doubt the reliability of the Tucker story. According to her, she worked on a cruise ship about ten years ago and not only personally did not encounter the practice she described, but also had nothing to do with the medical services, which should be responsible for such situations, nor to the kitchen, whose employees monitor the places of storage of products. In cruises, Tucker worked as a singer, and her story, by her own admission, was based on the stories of other crew members, who supposedly had to place corpses in ice cream refrigerators.
In early March, another user Tiktok Corey Bakner, who works, in his own words, by a doctor on cruise liners, reportedThe situation described by Tucker could well happen. He noted that the fridge for ice cream is most convenient to place the corpses of dead passengers, since this is a separate small camera where frozen vegetables and meat are not stored.
At the same time, many Internet users accused Tucker of lies to get attention-the girl even had to take off a separate video With excuses. Among those who I considered it Her story "delirium" were and employees cruise companies. In publications on specialized sites and in social networks They argue that they themselves did not encounter the described practice and cannot imagine that the room of corpses in ice cream refrigerators was possible.
However, occasionally such cases occur and become the reason for the scandal. So, in April 2023, the news appeared in the media about lawsuit, presented by one of the passengers of Celebrity Cruises (Tucker worked there). It was reported that a year earlier, 78-year-old Robert Jones died during a cruise, and due to the fact that the cooling system on board on board was inoperative, his body was stored for almost a week in the refrigerator for drinks. Due to the inappropriate conditions, the corpse of a man began to decompose to the end of the cruise, so the Jones family had to bury him in a closed coffin.
In the case of Jones, it was about force majeure, when the morgue on the ship simply stopped functioning. Tucker talked about situations when there was not enough space in a specialized room on board because of the large number of dead during the trip, and judging by her words, this is by no means uncommon. The author of the viral video claims that in each cruise, on average, from four to ten people dies. According to specialized data publications, in 2023 in the world there were about 300 active cruise liners. If we assume that each of them has made only one flight a year, then, according to the words Tucker, only from 1,200 to 3,000 people died over the past year during cruises. In reality, the numbers, apparently, are where lower. “Verified” failed to find statistics on deaths during cruises for 2023, however, judging by data, received by American researchers from cruise companies, from 2000 to 2019 only 623 deaths of passengers and crew members on board were registered. Some media publish others intelligence: Allegedly, about 200 people die on cruise liners, which, however, is still far from the Tucker assessments.
Stories that ice cream refrigerators and other food can be used to store corpses on cruise liners before. IN articles on specialized sites Approvedthat such rumors have been going on for decades. Some media even cite quotes Former or current crew members of such liners that confirm the truth of claims about storing bodies of the dead in ice cream refrigerators. However, as in the case of Tucker, none of them witnessed this, they only retell stories heard from one of the acquaintances.
Thus, the media spread the “shocking” news about the “real” reasons for the free distribution of ice cream in cruises, citing exclusively to the singer’s statement, who worked in one of these flights many years ago. She, in turn, refers to the stories of her former colleagues, although people who work and work on cruise liners mainly deny even the possibility of described events. In exceptional circumstances, the body of the dead on cruise liners can be stored in a refrigerator designed for food - such a case occurred, for example, in 2022. However, the crew made such a decision only because the cooling system in the ship's morgue was faulty, but the body was not stored in the fridge for ice cream, but in the drink for drinks. There is no reason to believe that such incidents take place regularly and reflect the widespread practice on cruise liners. It cannot be ruled out that once, due to force majeure circumstances, the liner crew really had to place the body of the deceased passenger in the ice cream refrigerator. As a result, the legend was born that if ice cream is handed out on board passengers for free, then a place for a corpse is exempted in the refrigerator. Now this story is transmitted from some employees of cruise liners to others and sometimes pops up on the network.
Photo on the cover: pexels.com
Read on the topic:
- Maritime Injury Guide. What Happens Wen a Passenger Dies on a Cruise Ship?
- The Telegraph. What Happens how Someone Dies on a Cruise?
- Is it true that one day the Egyptian authorities issued a passport of the mummy?
- Is it true that the Vikings buried the dead in the floating settled boats?
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