The final consideration of materials leads us to consider how they all work together, and it is here where the general understanding of wooden vessels usually falls short. Corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that works to degrade all materials, whether its gold, rock, plastic or steel. Corrosion occurs in many forms, most of which are not common knowledge, even in the marine industry. The ones we experience most often are oxidation reduction, galvanism and electrolysis. I will start with the last first because it is so misunderstood.
Electrolysis is the same identical process used in electroplating.
It occurs only with DC current and essentially moves material from an anode to a cathode. Theoretically, electrolysis cannot occur from AC current, although in reality stray AC current can be converted to DC current through naturally occurring diodes such as salt crystals. That's why electroplating can only be done with the very expensive process of using DC current. Otherwise, plating would be cheap and not as expensive as it is. Electrolysis only occurs on boats when there is a ground fault and it is leaking current, usually from bad wiring.