Just wondering, are any other server hosts encountering (server side) lag when the cargo ship spawns? I saw some posts on r/playrust about it, but I'm trying to gather some details for a temporary fix.

I've been testing, I don't think this is related to the pumpkin/seed lag issue.

It's not unlikely.  Big new features are usually released (to some degree) unoptimized and then the developers optimize them over the next few months.

Oh, for sure. I had just heard that only modded servers were taking a performance hit. I thought maybe the cargo ships were related to some major lag spikes my server experienced Sunday, but after some testing I don't think it's related (spawned 6 cargo ships and server FPS didn't even fluctuate). Disregard!