Sounds like the cruise ship did standard practice. Anyone in the cruise industry have any opinion? the article states that the ship was legally required to have a morgue…could a cooler be qualified to act as a morgue to meet legal requirements?
Being a cruise ship, I’d think they’ld be able to get a body off quicker than 6 days.
Hospital morgues are usually between 36-39F. This is good for a few days, it will not prevent, but it will certainly slow decomp. My guess is that the cooler temp was higher than that, and that the door was being opened to get more products from the cooler, which of course will cause the temp to fluctuate.