One of nearly 150 passengers stuck at sea on a cruise ship following the outbreak of a deadly virus has made an emotional appeal after two more sick crew were refused permission to leave.
The MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged expedition vessel operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, has been hit by a suspected hantavirus outbreak that has already killed three passengers, with a 69-year-old British man fighting for his life in a Johannesburg ICU, as the Daily Beast reported Sunday.
The ship left Ushuaia, Argentina, on March 20 for a 46-day voyage that was scheduled to end Monday in Cape Verde, but officials there are refusing to let the two stricken crew ashore to shield locals from infection, with the president of the country’s Public Health Institute insisting the ship should “continue its route,” the Daily Mail reported.
American travel blogger Jake Rosmarin has now posted an Instagram video filmed in his cabin in which he appealed to the world not to forget him and his fellow travelers.
Rosmarin told his 44,000 followers: “What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here. We’re not just a story, we’re not just headlines, we’re people. People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.”
Pleading for “kindness and understanding,” he added, “There’s a lot of uncertainty, and that’s the hardest part. All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity, and to get home. So if you’re seeing coverage about this, just remember that there are real people behind it, and that this isn’t something happening far away.”
The World Health Organization confirmed one case of hantavirus on board, with five more suspected. Dutch authorities are now scrambling to fly the two stricken crew members back home to the Netherlands—along with the body of a third dead passenger and a guest closely linked to them, the cruise operator said.
The first to die was a 70-year-old Dutch man, who suffered fever, headaches, stomach cramps, and diarrhea before passing away on St. Helena island, while his 69-year-old wife collapsed at Johannesburg airport before being airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she also died, according to the South African Department of Health.
Surviving passengers face an anxious wait of as long as eight weeks to find out whether they have caught the deadly bug, with one telling the Mail they had received no word from the cruise operator.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker told the BBC the sick had likely picked up the virus before boarding, urging immediate evacuation to an ICU.
Oceanwide Expeditions confirmed in a statement to the Daily Beast that there are 149 people on board the vessel with 23 nationalities—including 17 Americans—and said it was considering sailing on to Las Palmas or Tenerife to disembark passengers for medical screening.
The Mail had reported an earlier statement issued on Sunday night by Oceanwide Expeditions stated that “no authorisation” had been granted from Cape Verdean authorities to allow those requiring medical care to disembark.
A letter sent to customers by Oceanwide Expeditions on Sunday, reported by the outlet, said it was “awaiting approval from the Cape Verde authorities.”
Hantavirus is mainly spread through contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, or saliva, and can cause a deadly respiratory illness—with roughly four in 10 cases proving fatal, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says. The same illness killed Betsy Arakawa, the wife of late Hollywood actor Gene Hackman, who himself succumbed to heart disease soon afterward.
The Hondius—which holds up to 170 passengers and 71 crew, including a single doctor—stopped at Antarctica, the Falklands, South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena, and Ascension Island during its expedition.
The crisis marks the year’s fourth outbreak of a virus on a cruise—following 2025’s record 23, the highest in a decade.
