In his new book, investigative journalist Duncan McNab lays out what happened and what went wrong when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney last year.
On March 19 last year, a cruise ship docked in Sydney and, not long after sunrise, almost 3000 passengers disembarked.
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And so did COVID-19.
Despite several other cruise ships around the world already reporting outbreaks on board, the Ruby Princess passengers were allowed to leave the boat and head home without so much as a temperature check.
These days, it can be hard to get into a pub or restaurant without a staff member pointing a temperature gun at your forehead.
But back then, it was different - and so COVID-19 walked off the ship.
At one point, the ship would account for more than 10 per cent of coronavirus cases in NSW. Ultimately more than 900 cases and 28 deaths - the most of any cruise ship - would be linked to the Ruby Princess.
Investigative journalist Duncan McNab researched the debacle and the Special Commission of Inquiry held to find out what went wrong.
It was a "cascade of failure" that led to passengers walking off the ship, McNab said. These include not getting the results of tests until the day after, Ruby Princess medical staff not updating NSW Health about the extent of the infection, and NSW Health not requesting the latest information.
That information was critical. It would have pushed the percentage of infected passengers and crew over 1 per cent - the threshold for declaring a ship higher risk.
That designation would have seen passengers left on board the ship, rather than walking around, jumping in taxis and taking plane flights home.
Still McNab said we needed to temper the anger we felt at the start of the outbreak. But only a little bit.
"In the early days everyone was blaming each other, it was quite unsavoury, I thought," McNab said.
"Now we know exactly what happened, we know there were human errors, I think we've got to soften our view slightly.
"Mistakes happen - it wasn't malicious, it was just a cascade of failure that night.
"Getting the risk level wrong was problematic and then not finding out for almost 36 hours after the tests had been taken that there were people testing positive on board was another disaster."
For McNab, a decision that was just as significant was made on March 8, when cruise line owner Carnival decided the Ruby Princess should set sail on its voyage around New Zealand and back.
By this time, COVID outbreaks on cruise ships were already becoming a problem - including the Carnival-owned Ruby Princess' sister ships.
The Diamond Princess and its passengers were quarantined in Japanese waters on February 3 - after a month more than 700 cases would be detected.
And just as the Ruby Princess was preparing to leave, another ship in the fleet - the Grand Princess - had an outbreak on the way to Hawaii.
"The ship really shouldn't have sailed," McNab said of Ruby Princess' March 8 date.
"I know Carnival said they sailed on the basis of the best possible advice and they were doing everything right and that's fine.
"But with the disasters happening around the world there was also the option to say, prudently, we shouldn't sail. But they did."
The book came out of a Channel 7 documentary McNab researched last year.
With the research starting on a Monday for a show that aired five days later, McNab realised there was a lot more to the story that the documentary hadn't covered.
"That was a taster for me," he said.
"What followed was digging into what happened to the passengers long-term, what happened to the crew who spent weeks at sea wondering what the hell was going to happen and then finding themselves in Port Kembla in a ship marinating with the virus.
"I looked at it and thought 'this is a terrific story, there is substance enough to get me through a book. I think I need to write it'."
McNab drew a wider net in his book, including the earlier crises on COVID ships, the less-than-stellar environmental track record of the cruise industry and how they operate, as well as what happened after the Ruby Princess left Sydney.
The Ruby Princess would dock at Port Kembla on April 5, where more than 500 crew members were taken off and sent home.
Around three weeks later, the ship would leave and head back out to the open seas.
While much of the focus of the fallout from the Ruby Princess debacle focuses on the passengers and various officials, McNab said he developed some sympathy for the crew who remained stuck on the ship long after the passengers left.
"The thing that got me about those poor buggers was when the ship sailed out of Sydney on March 19 with only them on board," he said.
"It's the first time that they can get up where the passengers normally are and enjoy it. They think everything's fabulous and the boat's virus-free and then 24 hours they realise that's all gone to hell."
As part of the research for his book, McNab drew on the detailed media reports, the findings of the Commission of Inquiry and interviews with passengers.
He also spoke to the crew who had been on board the whole time, who opened up to McNab under the cloak of anonymity.
"They were incredibly frank with what had happened on board," McNab said.
"These are people who spend their entire lives on board trying to make the guests happy and they live a fairly arduous life.
"They work bloody hard. The conditions aren't spectacular and there the poor buggers are dumped in Port Kembla wondering what the bloody hell's going to happen."
The Ruby Princess by Duncan McNab is published by Pan MacMillan.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
