Zinc Plate Antifouling

Zinc-plate antifouling was the early-to-mid 19th-century practice of protecting iron and composite hulls from fouling using zinc sheathing or plates, after copper sheathing proved to set up galvanic corrosion when bolted to an iron hull. Zinc was less effective than copper against marine growth and was largely superseded by chemical antifouling paints. The same metal survives in modern practice as sacrificial zinc anodes for cathodic protection, which corrode preferentially to protect a steel hull.