It looks unpleasant; it looks soiled; the dirty brown streaks of various shades make the gray paint look downright spoiled. It’s warship rust, and there’s a never-ending (online and print) discussion of why U.S. Navy warships are streaked and caked with rust that makes them appear less than shipshape and not befitting a superpower Navy. In the case of steel warships, rust is a combination of air, water and iron alloy that combined cause an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen atoms to iron atoms to produce iron oxide, or corrosion, that over time bonds to the steel, weakening the metal structure and causing it to disintegrate.
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