SINGAPORE, 4 March 2020: Princess Cruises praised the captain of Diamond Princess, Gennaro Arma, in a twitter message earlier this week recognising him as a hero along with senior officers and crew following the unprecedented quarantine of the ship in Japan last month.
The Diamond Princess had been held at Yokohama port since the beginning of February and suffered the highest number of coronavirus cases outside of mainland China at one point during the virus outbreak.
On Sunday, the last of the crew members left the ship and its Italian captain, Gennaro Arma, who had vowed to stay on board until everyone else had left, was the last person to disembark, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.
In social media posts on Twitter and Facebook, Princess Cruises said: “Captain Arma was the last to leave Diamond Princess, and he is a hero in the eyes of all of us who are a part of the Princess global community. We thank him and his senior officers for their leadership, along with the service of our exceptional onboard team.
“We offer our sincere gratitude to all of the government agencies in Japan and around the world who worked with our shoreside colleagues to support our guests and team members through this extraordinary time.”
During the quarantine onboard Diamond Princess, the captain was quoted as saying: “I am confident that remaining united as a family, we will successfully complete this journey together. The world is watching us. This is an additional reason for all of us to show our strength.”
Arma faced the greatest leadership challenge of his career in keeping passengers’ spirits up as they were stuck on board, sometimes in windowless cabins, Newsweek reported.
The Twitter post and comments were shared more than 3,000 times. One tweet said: “Bravo Captain!!!!!! You deserve more than an applause and standing ovation as being the leader who not only took care of his passengers but also, more importantly, his crew!!!!”
Another wrote: “Ur leadership gave us hope and courage to finish what we have started.”
Carole Welch wrote: “Well done, Captain Arma and all the crew, you worked so hard to keep us all comfortable and reassured during that difficult time.”
See
https://www.facebook.com/PrincessCruises/
https://twitter.com/PrincessCruises/status/1234274452881510400
