Vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder. In this animation, the flow on the two sides of the cylinder are shown in different colors, to show that the vortices from the two sides alternate. Courtesy, Cesareo de La Rosa Siqueira.
Not much difference between the linked article in the OP and Lewis Fry Richardson:
Their results validate a theory formulated by Russian mathematical physicist Andrei Kolmogorov in the early 1940s. Among its consequences is that turbulence occurs in a cascade: large eddies break down into smaller ones, which in turn split into even smaller ones, in a fractal fashion.
I studied turbulence behind ships with great interest 50 years ago at two ship model testing tanks but also aboard ships. Turbulence develops when the laminar boundary layer between ship hull and the sea water breaks up into eddies due to friction, dynamic effects, etc. 50 years later nobody seems to have clarified the matter.
Anyway, a clean, smooth hull reduces turbulence and reduces resistance and fuel consumption and increases speed.