My only suggestion, without having read it, is to put a bit of a contrast haze around the ship so it's more clearly visible as a ship. In Photoshop, you can do this with layer properties very easily. You can try different colors (either dark, light, or maybe neutral gold like the background between the stripes), make a soft haze effect around it.

thanks for the suggestion. it took some work (I am not adept at Photoshop at all,) but I managed something like that

Indeed you did-- looks great!

thank you