They live on board with him and "played a key role", that seems to be it.
If you read it quickly, you might not even notice that it wasn't a single guy + some volunteers.
The one instance of the word "couple" is referring to different people restoring another ship.
It's still odd, so I couldn't help being curious whether Willson, his partner, or the reporter is responsible.
Am I defending the reporter? Or complaining that they did a bad job by leaving that obvious question of the partner unanswered? Neither, I hope.
>I couldn't help being curious whether Willson, his partner, or the reporter is responsible.
I just say that this phenomenon you noticed may be accidental, and there may be no intention by any of the individuals you named in that statement, or by any other party.
Sorry, but I can't explain this situation to you any more simply than that.
I was not using the word "responsible" to mean "caused the end result intentionally".
If I run over a squirrel with my car, it's not intentional, but I'm responsible. If the other person in the car slapped me and distracted me, we might both be partly responsible.
Maybe the editor cut something out they shouldn't have (are there still editors?). Or maybe a divorce is brewing due to the ship obsession.