That was exactly the feeling I had. I actually thought it was a very interesting article about the life of an oil rig worker. Suddenly, and in a throwaway fashion, we get a rumor about some unfortunate man and that's all. If this was meant to be an article about divorce, why wasn't there more divorce-related material? If this was supposed to be about oil rigs, why not focus on that and change the title? Very jarring experience all-around.

You can see a note under the text noting that it's a book excerpt: https://bookshop.org/books/sea-state-a-memoir/9780063030831

Ah, thanks, I missed that