The Zaandam cruise ship is anchored shortly after it arrived to the bay of Panama City, March 27, 2020. In “Cabin Fever,” Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin write about how the ship’s planned fun trip turned deadly at the start of the COVID pandemic.
“Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic,” by Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin. Doubleday, 2022. 253 pages, $30.
The Zaandam cruise ship is anchored shortly after it arrived to the bay of Panama City, March 27, 2020. In “Cabin Fever,” Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin write about how the ship’s planned fun trip turned deadly at the start of the COVID pandemic.
“Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic,” by Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin. Doubleday, 2022. 253 pages, $30.
The COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world for more than two years has produced enough stories of adventure and heroism to fill many books. As its subtitle indicates, “Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic” is an account of the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam during March to May 2020, as the pandemic exploded into global consciousness. It is a tale of peril, uncertainty, changing perceptions, erroneous decisions, tragedy, and death.
Authors Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin provide a detailed day-by-day account of life on the ship and related developments elsewhere. Their reporting reminds me of the historical writing of Erik Larson or of Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre — so thoroughly researched and filled with emotional content that it reads like a novel. Smith is an investigative reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek who extensively covered the news of COVID outbreaks on cruise ships. Franklin is an investigative journalist and author based in Chile.
The Zaandam left Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 8, 2020, bound through the Straits of Magellan, up the west coast of South America, through the Panama Canal, to Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was a dream trip for many of the passengers: interesting ports of call, Chilean fjords, excursions to Machu Picchu and other sites. Passengers and crew were aware that a new disease had emerged in China and was affecting other parts of the world, but assumed that was all far away and that they would be safe. The dream soon turned into a nightmare, however. Ports refused them entry and illness soon raged throughout the ship. Panama was the only country en route to take mercy on them, by allowing them to transit the canal.
Smith and Franklin begin by introducing the reader to a dozen characters, including crew, passengers, and Holland America officials. The subsequent narrative closely follows these and other individuals through their experiences and changing perceptions of their situation. The authors must have conducted extensive interviews to reconstruct such detailed description. What is perhaps most impressive — or perhaps puzzling — is how much they were able to find out about the activities and thoughts of people they could not possibly have interviewed — because they died of COVID before the end of the cruise.
People who have taken cruises, especially with Holland America, will find that much of the description of onboard life rings true: the atmosphere of manufactured enjoyment, the thoughtful service of Indonesian and other staff, the captain’s intercom announcements, the excitement of departing on an adventure. Cruise ships normally have ubiquitous hand cleanser dispensers and often take additional sanitation measures when outbreaks occur on board. One of the interesting features of this book is how well it portrays the transition from unsuspecting enjoyment to deadly crisis. Early in the cruise, Holland America issued instructions that crew and staff not wear masks in the presence of passengers. Within days, the crew was exercising a form of triage, transferring healthy passengers to a sister ship and ordering all others to remain in isolation in their cabins.
I found it interesting to run across a familiar name. The authors mention (p. 13) that the CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines (which owns Holland America as well as Princess Cruises) was “repeatedly brought before federal judge Patricia Seitz” for various violations. Judge Seitz is a Kansas State University political science alumna and daughter of late Junction City resident General Richard Seitz (1918-2013).
I found this a chilling but well-told story. I am not certain when or if we will set foot on a cruise ship again. In some respects, though, what happened on the Zaandam is just an extreme version of what happened throughout the world, especially in the United States, during the pandemic. Bad decisions were made, expectations proved foolish in retrospect, but heroism and dedication were also evident. COVID is still with us. This book is not just about on a diverse group of people on a distant cruise ship two years ago. It also can lead us to reflect on our own pandemic journeys, even today.
This book is available at the Manhattan Public Library.
William L. Richter is professor emeritus of political science and former associate provost for international programs at Kansas State University.
