A decent number of very long ships, although not enough to be almost all, form from the right half of generation 7 of this pattern, where generation 0 is a bakery predecessor with one cell moved to an adjacent location. The very long ship forms in generation 17. Some of them go through the sequence shown here, while others reach generation 7 in a different way. Because this is a common predecessor, the very long ship is often accompanied by two nearby boats. (click above to open LifeViewer)
↑ MathAndCode (October 16, 2021). Re: Small Spaceship Syntheses (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums , second code block, top row, second from left, unintentional