The Post And Courier News

According to a May 20 report from The Post and Courier, a recent uptick in a few categories of exports was not enough to offset falling demand for most other goods that come through the Port of Charleston, the latest figures show. The State Ports Authority said at a board meeting on May 19 that the number of containers that crossed its piers during the first 10 months of its fiscal year was down by about 127,000, or 16 percent, as of April 30. (Source: The Post and Courier)

"Tug boat sinks, spills diesel fuel" declared the headline in the Local section of the newspaper. And, strictly speaking, the headline was correct. In 1906, The Captain Morgan had been built as a tug. But as the fourth paragraph acknowledged, "The owner was having the boat ... refurbished into a house boat." So would it be more correct, technically speaking, to say "House boat sinks?" It may be a subtle distinction, but subtleties are why people buy newspapers. Houseboaters and pleasure boaters in general, some might imagine, leave no waterborne pollutants in Charleston harbor, while commercial vessels and oil spills were practically synonymous by November 9. And potentially scandalous.