US Immigration
I was woken by a 5:00 am call from our London Office. "We have a dangerously ill crew member on a ship 150 miles offshore from you. Arrange a helicopter to get him ashore and into a hospital!" This was not a normal part of my job, but after a few phone calls we were able to make it happen and the crew member was flown directly to the roof of a hospital.

On arrival he was declared dead. Since he was dying, the man had neglected to bring his passport - a reckless oversight it would later emerge. The next step was getting his body back to his home country and family. Unfortunately, US Immigration determined that since he was declared dead immediately after landing at the hospital he must have been alive at the time he entered the US and would have to have his passport stamped before the body could be released. The ship and his passport were now out of helicopter range on their way to North Africa. Even though we got the diplomats involved, Immigration would not budge. So, three weeks later when the ship reached its next port, his passport was sent back to Immigration who then released his body.

And this was before 9/11 so I probably avoided arrest for something like "felony conspiracy to violate immigration law."
(LangdaleBeck Langdale Beck, Fri 28 Mar 2014, 17:13, 6 replies)

People dying on ships is always an interesting one.
We had someone pop his clogs on a voyage, and they stuck him in the freezer.

When the got into port and disembarked the (very) stiff, The P and I rep had to persuade the master (not unreasonably, in my opinion) to empty out the freezer and restock it before carrying on with the voyage.
(username failed moderation, Fri 28 Mar 2014, 17:24, closed)

One of our teacher told us one
About someone who definitively ended his watch leaving Antwerp for Japan. Round trip 6 months. So they stuck him in the back of the freezer for the duration.

Family pissed off at not being warned...
(smellysamlyingcable Seaman on, Fri 28 Mar 2014, 19:58, closed)

Freezer duty
I wonder if they continued to pay him.
(LangdaleBeck Langdale Beck, Fri 28 Mar 2014, 20:46, closed)

It is a bit unreasonable.
What sort of health risk do you think a frozen corpse is compared to say, some frozen bits of dead cow and chicken?
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Sat 29 Mar 2014, 4:55, closed)

being frozen doesn't mean it's in sterile stasis
The beef and chicken will have been slaughtered and processed in a way that reduces contamination and infection risk as much as possible.
Hopefully the person died of something non-contagious but I doubt he'd been professionally skinned and gutted.
Though I've never been on a cruise so it could be full on ahoy buffalo bill for all I know.
(dyllon nice beaver., Sat 29 Mar 2014, 9:15, closed)

Dunno about you, but
I wouldn't much fancy eating food that had been sitting with a dead body for a week.

There's no real reason for it, but I just wouldn't.
(username failed moderation, Mon 31 Mar 2014, 10:02, closed)