The day before the MV Hondius’s latest sailing, the crew of the merchant vessel gathered for dinner in Ushuaia, the Argentine resort town known as the gateway to Antarctica.
“One Table, Nine Nations, One Epic Journey,” chef Khabir Moraes posted on Instagram on March 31.
The Oceanwide Expeditions cruise is now enmeshed in a deadly hantavirus outbreak. Three people have died and at least five more have been infected. Health authorities and airlines are racing to control further spread of the virus.
Infections are a risk on cruises given the close quarters. A doctor was on board the Hondius. Its infections were especially unlikely, however, involving a rodent-borne pathogen that rarely spreads from human to human but did on a vessel carrying fewer than 150 passengers.
“The fact that it happened in a cruise ship with people from different nationalities is something that we haven’t seen before,” Anaïs Legand, a technical lead for viral hemorrhagic fevers at the World Health Organization, said during a press briefing Thursday.
The Hondius was far from the Love Boat. Its passengers were largely a dedicated group of nature enthusiasts, interested in seeing fur seals and migratory birds.
The ship itself is built to navigate frigid waters featuring hulking chunks of ice. The sailing was set to take passengers to remote islands from the South Atlantic to Cape Verde. Fares cost up to nearly $29,000 a person. Included were neoprene muck boots and snowshoes. Some passengers shared small, quadruple-occupancy cabins with strangers, complete with bunk beds reminiscent of a cut-rate youth hostel.
Its recent journey began April 1, when a total of 114 passengers boarded the Hondius in Ushuaia. Boston-based travel blogger Jake Rosmarin posted on Instagram how the ship was almost immediately greeted by albatrosses, dolphins, sea lions and humpback whales.
What passengers and crew couldn’t see, according to the World Health Organization, is that the first infected person probably contracted the virus before boarding. A couple who later fell ill with the virus took a bird-watching trip through Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before their cruise, the WHO said.
Early journey
The first few days on the Hondius went largely according to plan. Oceanwide billed the voyage as its “Atlantic Odyssey” sailing. It was designed to bridge the gap between the Antarctic and Arctic cruise seasons. The ship was to travel for six weeks, though passengers could get on and off at different stops.
The ship and its passengers braved the Scotia Sea, where stormy conditions caused swells up to 23 feet high. When travelers weren’t dining together at buffet-style meals for breakfast and lunch, they were often gathered for group lectures or exercise classes.
Days were capped with folks exchanging anecdotes about the wildlife spotted from the vessel, Rosmarin said on social media. The sailing was particularly popular with birding enthusiasts, said Ruhi Çenet, a 35-year-old YouTuber from Istanbul, who traveled on the first leg of the voyage.
The Hondius reached its first stop, South Georgia Island, on day five. Windy weather prevented some of the planned excursions at the largely uninhabited British territory. Eventually passengers were able to leave the ship zipping away on Zodiac boats and make their way to the island to see its main residents: penguins, fur seals and elephant seals.
A few days later, the hantavirus struck. The contagion is typically found in rodents and rarely infects humans. A passenger fell ill and died April 11. The ship’s captain informed guests of the unfortunate situation the following day but tried to put people at ease.
“We’re not infectious; the ship is safe,” the captain told passengers gathered in a lunchtime meeting, as seen in a video Çenet posted on social media.
Those onboard took the captain at his word, Çenet said. People kept eating meals, attending lectures, exercising and stargazing together. Many sought to comfort the grieving wife of the deceased passenger.
“I wish they had taken this more seriously from the very beginning,” Çenet said.
The company said that the cause of death was unknown at the time and there wasn’t evidence of a virus or contagion aboard the ship. “The case was believed to be isolated following medical review,” the company said.
Opportunities for the virus to spread off the ship began. When the ship reached Tristan da Cunha, a British territory that is home to roughly 220 people as of this month, travelers disembarked for group tours and solo excursions. Three people from the vessel, a passenger and two crew members, gave a presentation to schoolchildren, a local news site reported.
Many dined and drank beer with islanders at the Albatross Pub. Local officials boarded the ship for a photo opportunity with the captain. The Hondius was the final cruise to visit Tristan, an island that is otherwise only reachable via a six-day boat ride from Africa, for the season. Six new passengers joined the ship before it departed Tristan. Cruise-goers could view Inaccessible Island, an uninhabited site home to the breeding grounds for many species of rare birds.
St. Helena, a British island in the South Atlantic about 1,200 miles west of Angola, was the final stop for a group of Hondius passengers. On April 24, 29 people—and the body of the diseased passenger—disembarked.
Many of those people stayed in hotels, including Çenet. He flew to Johannesburg to then make his way home to Turkey a few days later.
The woman whose husband died on the ship was among those who traveled from St. Helena to Johannesburg. At the airport, Çenet said he saw her using a wheelchair, which he found concerning. “On her last days, she was struggling to stand upright,” he said. She later died in Johannesburg.
Second leg
After two days in St. Helena, the Hondius set off on the second leg of its Atlantic journey toward Cape Verde. A special “Chef’s Table” meal featured pumpkin and ginger soup, a duo of rock lobster and beef tenderloin, and a carrot panna cotta dessert, Moraes posted.
During this half of the voyage, as the ship approached the equator, it became clear that problems extended beyond a couple of isolated illnesses. An unwell guest was medevaced from the ship April 27.
The cruise line subsequently enacted level three—the highest one—of its emergency-response plan, which includes “isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.” That is when the ship’s medical team requested testing to see if any pathogens were present.
On Sunday, Oceanwide posted a public statement on its website about the “serious medical situation” on the Hondius. It was the day before the sailing was slated to end. By that point, three passengers had died, one was in intensive care in Johannesburg and two crew members needed urgent care, the company said.
On board the Hondius were 149 people from 23 different nations including the U.S., U.K., Spain and Australia. Crew members hailed from the Philippines, Ukraine and the Netherlands among other countries. For them, life onboard suddenly looked very different. Passengers still have access to the ship’s outer decks, Rosmarin wrote in a post.
Tuesday, a World Health Organization official said that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus was possible on the vessel.
The company said it is cooperating with local and international authorities, including the WHO and relevant embassies.
Three people were medevaced from the ship in recent days, including a British man who was serving as an expedition guide. He told Britain’s Sky News that he was “doing OK.” The ship is now making its way to the Canary Islands.
Three additional medical professionals, including two infectious-disease experts, joined the voyage. A doctor had been onboard previously, but Oceanwide confirmed he was among the individuals who became ill.
On Thursday, Oceanwide said no passengers were showing hantavirus symptoms.
Write to Jacob Passy at jacob.passy@wsj.com