Counting the days on a ship was not the main priority, however. Surviving the voyage was the main horror. No one escaped diseases as the close quarters infected everyone including the crew. Death was so common that ships were called "tumbeiros" or floating tombs. What shocked Africans the most was how death was handled in the ships. Smallwood says the traditions for an African death was delicate and community-based. On ships, bodies would be thrown into the sea. Because the sea represented bad omens, bodies in the sea represented a form of purgatory and the ship a form of hell. In the end, the Africans who made the journey would have survived disease, malnutrition, confined space, close death, and the trauma of the ship.