Salt Water corrosion is of primary concern to ship designers, builders, and operators, because control of this damaging action is essential to the economical operation of the modern steel vessel. The fundamental principles involved are fairly well understood by engineers in each of the above categories, and it is usually through oversight or through failure to recognize a given set of conditions as being favorable to accelerated corrosion that unusually high corrosion rates are allowed to become established. This article attempts to review the fundamental principles which are applied in modern shipbuilding practice to minimize corrosion damage, and gives examples of the consequences when these precautions are not observed.
Normal corrosion of the steel hull is controlled by the use of proper materials and the maintenance of an adequate paint film. Improperly coated areas which sometimes occur are not normally troublesome, since under a periodic repainting schedule, they eventually become...
