I think I've solved the curious case of the missing ship

direct/src/distributed/DistributedCartesianGrid.py

@@ -120,11 +120,9 @@ class DistributedCartesianGrid(DistributedNode, CartesianGridBase):
         self.visAvatar = avatar
         self.visZone = None
         self.visDirty = True
-        if not self.gridVisContext:
-            self.gridVisContext = self.cr.addInterest(
-                self.getDoId(), 0, self.uniqueName("visibility"))
         taskMgr.add(
             self.processVisibility, self.taskName("processVisibility"))
+        self.processVisibility(0)
 
     @report(types = ['deltaStamp', 'avLocation', 'args'], dConfigParam = ['want-connector-report','want-shipboard-report'])
     def stopProcessVisibility(self, clearAll=False, event=None):