[Short note: Check updates on the "about" page; I'm always interested in collaborators. If you see something . . . (i.e., interesting vessel), take a picture and say something (Email me). To me, the interactivity of non-commercial blogs distinguishes them from many other media.]

St. Pauli . . . made me think of a wild night in Hamburg,

although her bow pushed past the pristine blooming desert of Staten Island’s northwest coast, or

so it appears. Anyone know the name Rudolf A. Oetker? Why… you ask?

I admit I didn’t either til I looked up some info on this vessel. It turns out this product carrier (how’s that for a bland euphemism) is in the Oetker group and

cohabits a fleet of product carriers with many saints . . . like St Georg, below, as well as Lepta Mermaid

Name associations vary dramatically with single-letter additions or omissions. St Paul and St Pauli are a world of difference, kind of like friend and fiend, in no particular order. Or Lepta Mermaid v. “leapt a memaid” as in . . . “as I lifted the empty conch from the surf before me, out “leapt a mermaid,” the size of a dragonfly and threatening to ___ ” or something. Care to finish the thought for me?