Another Take: The cruise is over, but coronavirus has crews stranded at sea
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on June 1, 2020. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
When coronavirus hit the cruise industry, many passengers were allowed to disembark and were repatriated to their home countries. But as of mid-May, about 100,000 crew members were still at sea, trying to get home.
We speak with Sterling Howell, musician and cruise line entertainer crew member who was able to go home, Krista Thomas, former guest services director for Norwegian Cruises, and with many who are still stuck on board, including Ghoseawon “Albert” Luxmeeparsad, and other Mauritian crew members.
For more:
If you are struggling with mental health issues, there are suicide crisis lines available in many countries around the world. Here are some of those resources:
International Association for Suicide Prevention
Global Suicide Hotline Resources – WhatsApp
In this episode:
- Sterling Howell, Cruise Ship Crewmember
- Krista Thomas, Former Guest Services Director for Norwegian Cruises
- Dr. Sami, Physician
- Gan, Cruise Ship Crewmember
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Chloe K. Li. The original production team was Amy Walters with Dina Kesbeh, Priyanka Tilve, Ney Alvarez, Alexandra Locke and our host, Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
Connect with us:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi, I'm Chloe Kaylee, and this is another take, where we dive into the archives. |
| 0:16.0 | The passengers who are aboard the cruise ship, where three died from a hantavirus outbreak, |
| 0:22.4 | have all returned to their home countries. |
| 0:25.8 | 59 crew members from countries like the Philippines, the UK, and India were on board the ship. |
| 0:33.8 | UN health agency officials say that the risk of the virus spreading is low, but it's |
| 0:39.2 | drawing comparisons to the COVID-19 pandemic. When COVID-19 first hit, the cruise industry |
| 0:45.8 | came to a halt. It left crew members stranded at sea. Back then, the take heard from a few of them. |
| 0:55.5 | This episode originally aired on June 1st, 2020. |
| 1:00.4 | All references are from that time. |
| 1:17.7 | Just to note, there are some heavy topics that come up in this episode, including suicide. |
| 1:26.9 | We are what you call a party band, so we do everything from standards to country to 50s and 60s, rock and roll, R&B, |
| 1:28.4 | reggae, everything. |
| 1:31.9 | I love R&B. |
| 1:34.0 | As a singer in a party band, Sterling Howell knows a lot about partying. |
| 1:39.5 | Being the life of the party is basically his job. |
| 1:43.4 | He sings for the cruise line, Princess Cruises. |
| 1:51.0 | So Sterling knows when a party is going well. |
| 1:55.6 | It's like if you go to the club, there's a band performing. |
| 1:59.0 | You could drink how much you want and you could just party, |
| 2:02.0 | you know. And he knows when the party's falling apart. You go to the club and then you are |
| 2:09.5 | confined to one square meter. Then they tell you, okay, you could only have one drink and you have to |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Al Jazeera, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Al Jazeera and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.