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David Shaw's avatar

Rethinking that Carnival Cruise.

Lori Olson White's avatar

Haha - as I was doing this research, of course I went back and read an analysis of the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined for 39 days near the beginning of the pandemic just to get some idea of how protocols have - or have not - changed 😉.

David Shaw's avatar

I had the exact same thought. And back in the Medieval times people would hang their quarantine guards to get out of quarantine.

Nate Douglas's avatar

Cholera doesn’t discriminate. It cares less about social class and more about water.

Peter Anthony's avatar

Thank you, Lori, for another gripping chapter. What really connected with me were the passengers’ voices, especially the women’s plea to the Health Board to act as fathers and husbands. It underlined both the fear they felt and the assumptions of the age. The contrast between those appeals and Rose’s later reflection that “scarcely a soul smiled” made the despair of quarantine very real.

Lisa E Oakley's avatar

Thank you, your writing kept me riveted immediately.

Paul Chiddicks's avatar

Your gripping account, Lori, captures the harsh realities of such an awful disease and the fear it generated. Meanwhile, the upper class carried on with their fine dining, treating the suffering and death around them as little more than an inconvenience

Kathy Stone's avatar

Another great chapter of this story.

Jude Rhodes's avatar

A very interesting insight into early isolation

Jennifer Jones's avatar

I can’t imagine how it must have felt to be kept quarantined for days at the end of the voyage, especially with your children at risk. It’s obvious that those on the upper decks had no concern at all for the steerage passengers. I shouldn’t be surprised at this as it mirrors the upper classes attitude to those less fortunate in everyday life.

Jane Chapman's avatar

As horrible as the experience must have been I can't help but think of the privileged above-deckers as spoilt brats. They don't care a jot for those in Steerage.

Nica Waters's avatar

"“injustice of their inexcusable neglect”" this sentence is just chilling to read. The arrogance, the superiority, and the complete indifference to steerage passengers as people.

The ability to not see less fortunate people as people isn't a new phenomenon.

Jill Swenson's avatar

To have come all that way and then be held captive in quarantine where exposure would be inevitable is hard to fathom. Gripping storytelling!

Teresa's avatar

I can't imagine what it would have been like on board that ship...in our modern world, at least until Covid, we had forgotten how quickly deadly disease can spread. Those poor steerage passengers - it must have been horrendous, just waiting to be next.

Lori Olson White's avatar

It must have been horrifying, the helplessness, unimaginable. As I was doing the research and writing, I, too, kept making comparisons to our recent Covid experiences - and those comparisons come fast and furious in this story. The finger pointing, the fear, the control, the chaos are all familiar. The divides.

Glad you’re along for the ride,

Charlotte Zureick's avatar

Wow! That is wild...I am surprised they kept the first class passengers on after that...cannot wait until the next segment!