How an ocean cruise turned into a hantavirus nightmare
Tim Taps
Johannesburg: The first victim of a suspected hantavirus outbreak had died 21 days earlier when cruiser and travel blogger Jake Rosmarin posted a video about cows he spotted on a remote volcanic island in the Atlantic; This showed no indication that he was aware that the cruise ship was about to be quarantined.
However, later that evening, on May 2, Rosmarin shared: “For those who have seen the latest news, yes, I am currently on board the MV Hondius,” adding that she did not want to say anything further “out of respect for those involved.”
The next day, with his ship stranded off the coast of Cape Verde and denied permission to evacuate his passengers and crew, a visibly distraught Rosmarin said: “What is happening now is very real for all of us.
“We’re not just headlines. We’re people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home,” she added, her voice shaking as she fought back tears, the ring on her ring finger visible in the frame.
“All we want is to feel safe and return home,” he said.
This was two days after I expressed excitement at seeing the critically endangered Wilkins Finch on Nightingale Island.
American Rosmarin 46,000 followers on Instagram. In a post from August 2025, he was seen proposing to his partner near Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on Sydney Harbor, with the Opera House in the background.
Fear as dozens of people were trapped on the ship
About 150 people were stranded on the MV Hondius, which was visiting some of the world’s most remote places, including the island of Tristan da Cunha between Argentina and South Africa in the South Atlantic, where Rosmarin filmed the cows.
The ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said three people on board died, including a Dutch couple and a German citizen.
Rosmarin did not immediately respond to a request for comment via text message, but her post was a rare insight into the atmosphere aboard MV Hondius.
The first passenger to be shipwrecked, a Dutchman, died on 11 April as the ship was heading towards Tristan da Cunha. Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement on Monday that his body remained on the ship until April 24, when it was “disembarked at St Helena, accompanying the repatriation of his wife”.
Three days later, the man’s wife also fell ill and later died, while another British passenger “became seriously ill and was medically evacuated to South Africa”, the company said.
South African officials have confirmed that a British patient being treated at a hospital in Johannesburg has tested positive for hantavirus. The Netherlands confirmed that the virus was also detected in the Dutch woman who died in South Africa.
Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed there were four Australians on board but their identities were not disclosed. This masthead has approached DFAT for comment.
The trend continued as deaths increased
Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina in March on a journey marketed as an Antarctic nature cruise, with mooring prices ranging from €14,000 to €22,000 ($22,000 to $35,000), according to company documents.
Passing north of the Antarctic mainland, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St Helena and Ascension, it reached Cape Verde waters on 3 May.
On May 1, the ship’s chief, Khabir Moraes, posted a cheerful video of himself and his colleagues floating in the ocean in a rubber dinghy, with the cruise ship docked in the background.
“The day was beautiful and the depth was 4700 metres,” he said in the video, commenting on his colleagues laughing as they pulled him back into the boat.
Moraes did not immediately respond to a text message request for comment from Reuters. Reuters could not determine whether he was aware of the deaths before making his post.
In its statement on Monday, Oceanwide stated that another passenger died the next day, adding that the cause has not yet been determined and that the passenger was a German citizen.
Oceanwide Expeditions said Cape Verde health authorities have not yet given permission for medical evacuation of the ship and screening of its passengers.
It is now considering expanding to Las Palmas or Tenerife in the Canary Islands for this purpose.
According to the World Health Organization, Hantavirus is spread mainly by rodents, but in rare cases it can also be transmitted between humans.
While concerns increased in South Africa, health officials said that local people did not need to worry about the spread of the virus on land, while Cape Verde officials made a statement to calm fears and said that “there is currently no risk to the population on land” due to the ship remaining at sea.
Reuters
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