Sick Ships: A Discussion on Historical Cases and Optimization for the Future

Ships and disease spreading have been associated with certain incidents throughout history, which led to changes in ways of designing and investigating blue growth strategy. Interestingly, the term “quarantine” and its associated meaning (40 days of isolation), whose origin traces back to the fourteenth century, was initially used for ships. Specifically, it referred to the mitigation of disease spreading from crew and passengers of ships to disembarkation areas. Ships, crew, passengers, and cargo were isolated from their onward destination in order to prevent lethal disease spreading on coastal areas and back onboard. While famous registries were not established at the time, the idea of health and safety has been the topic of interest for ship design and management, ever since. Nowadays, International registries have prescribed regulations and protocols to ensure health and safety. The need however persists to date on identifying new methods of preventing the incidence of communicable diseases onboard ships and thereafter to onward journey destinations. The COVID-19 outbreak has stressed this pressing need, as “quarantine” seemed to remain the main contemporary method of preventing spreads of the virus within large vessels such as cruise liners, and thereafter to onward destinations. This chapter, aims to contribute toward opening a discussion on optimizing interior ship design to achieve disease prevention and a sustainable blue growth strategy for the future.