Luckily there are not many wooden ships around, so shipworms eating the timbers is no longer the curse that it was for sailors of old. Shipworm is still out there – when I salvaged my boat, all the solid wooden joinery was eaten through and looked like a piece of sponge.
It was the need to prevent shipworm damage that led, in the 1750s, to the discovery that copper sheathing prevents anything growing on or in the hull of a vessel. Modern antifoul was born from that discovery, and copper-based compounds have, in one form or another, been the basis of most commercial antifouling products. Not only shipworm infestation, but indeed almost all types of marine encrustation, are greatly reduced (not entirely prevented) by using an antifouling paint formula below the waterline.
For most boats made of wood, fibreglass or steel, there is not too
