> "All the brass work on the wreck, like the portholes and the breaches for the deck guns, are all still shiny..."
I'm not a materials science person, but doesn't brass degrade fairly quickly in saltwater? Googling around, I'm discovering "Naval Brass," which is an alloy particularly resistant to dezincification in salt water, but it doesn't sound like it was in use in 1914. But I'm also reading about some brass artifacts from centuries ago that survived relatively well underwater. Wonder if somebody who knows about this stuff could clue me in to how these things do so well underwater for so long?
I'm not a materials science person, but doesn't brass degrade fairly quickly in saltwater? Googling around, I'm discovering "Naval Brass," which is an alloy particularly resistant to dezincification in salt water, but it doesn't sound like it was in use in 1914. But I'm also reading about some brass artifacts from centuries ago that survived relatively well underwater. Wonder if somebody who knows about this stuff could clue me in to how these things do so well underwater for so long?