This is very uncomfortable, but I regret to inform you that Merchant Seaman was lost in a collision and his ship's resulting explosion in the Southwest Pacific, not far from Pitcairn Island, in November, 2002. His body was never recovered. We still hold out hope that he was able to cling to debris and that he may have found land on one of the nearby islands, but if so, we doubt he has Internet access there. You know, since he never had the opportunity to build his FR *about page* homepage [click on his name in post #1 for details] the least we could do to memorialize him is to attend to that little chore for him.
Really, we shouldn't let his presence here be forgotten....
Merchant Seaman hasn't created an about page.