Oosterdam departs Torbay after months anchored as 'ghost ship' during pandemic

800 crew members from 100 countries were stranded aboard the Oosterdam for two months in 2020 when the CDC prevented disembarkation in Los Angeles.

After nine months anchored in the sheltered waters of Torbay, Holland America Line's Oosterdam departed for Southampton on a March evening in 2021, her horns answered by the sister ships she left behind. The vessel had become an emblem of the pandemic's disruption to human movement — most acutely when 800 crew members from 100 countries were held aboard for two months in 2020, unable to disembark in Los Angeles as the world closed around them. Her departure was neither triumph nor resolution, but something quieter: a first step back into motion for an industry that had learned, at great human

Oosterdam departs Torbay after months anchored as 'ghost ship' during pandemic

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