I think the biggest shame was that her wreck was illegally salvaged, along with the Java and Kortenaer. I don't know why someone would want to take scrap that's been in the ocean for more than half a century.
I think the biggest shame was that her wreck was illegally salvaged, along with the Java and Kortenaer. I don't know why someone would want to take scrap that's been in the ocean for more than half a century.
The propellers of warships were made of pretty hardy and valuable stuff.
Any warship sunk before Trinity is valuable because the metal isn't contaminated with radioactive particles; making it useful in all sorts of sensitive applications. There's been a real problem of all kinds of wrecks being illegally salvaged in recent years.
A furnace for most basic metals doesn't really care about corrosion as skimming and removing impurities is a step that has to occur regardless when making most metals from raw ore or lightly processed feedstock anyway. Hell one of the preferred feedstocks for steel mills is pelletized iron ore, which is only about 70% iron as it includes a number of binders and additives to form the pellets, it's also often shipped and stored uncovered and hence forms surface rust.