Upon close inspection I see that we have two, not just one, ship in a bottle on the stereo. I was an active assistant in their making. for one thing, we would survey hobo hangouts looking for the just right bottles for ships. (Wine bottles would never do.) They had to be the right shape and had to have part of the label left on around the neck. We're talking booze here.

The masts were cut from rulers, for the boxwood of rulers was one form of very strong, stable wood available to a poor person. Holes were drilled in them with a sewing-machine needles, and staples were threaded through the holes and into the ship to hold the masts. The sails were made from will & trust paper from the law firm where I work. They have kept their shape for ten or fifteen years now.

It is my belief, Charley, that the love interest makes the song too complicated. The song already has a street, a restaurant, a narrator, a ship in a bottle and the sailor who made it. Adding a long-lost love is too much.

The problem may be simply that 'shipmate' is the wrong word. Two sailors working the same ship would be shipmates. Cicely and her sailor cannot be shipmates. (Actually, it took me a while to figure out what she was talking about.) Perhaps

And the sailor I loved was beside me again

Interestingly enough, Rotherhithe came up in the recent thread about "gay and grinding." A hithe is a small harbor.