After the student rollout, Amazon began quietly opening more staffed non-college affiliated pickup locations that offered the shipping perks without the student-friendly stocked items.
Liz Aubert, a spokeswoman for Seaeye, the Massachusetts company that owns the ship, said that if there was not "significant progress" toward meeting that goal by next July, the company might offer the ship to another organization.
They have no resources or experience to offer the shipping services their big competitors offer which usually results in delayed deliveries or damages due to poor packing.
As a consequence, they settle for the crumbs that are eventually offered by the ship owners after a disaster.
These will often cost less than those offered on the ship.
On this trip, Deep Marine Technology Inc. of Houston, which carries out underwater work for oil companies, offered the use of its ship, equipment and crew.
A portal known as the "Door of No Return," leading to the slave ships, offered the forlorn captives a last glimpse of home, before they were sown to the wind and sold in the West.
In the days before cars and planes, when ships offered the most exciting way to get somewhere, vacationers from Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago and Milwaukee regularly boarded vessels that took them to resort towns.
The conversion is part of the company's plans to offer the first ships registered in the United States in 50 years.
One harbor over, at Strandvagen 7c, there's the Hotel Diplomat, (46-8) 459-6833, fax (46-8) 459-6822, which offers the same ship-filled view sans castle, with 128 traditionally appointed rooms ranging from $178 a night for a weekend double to $258 on weeknights.
