"Shocking Thread"-How good is sea-water as an electrolyte?

[ainitfunny]

I was doing some "what if" thinking and wondered what would happen if a ship had the right (or left) side made out of copper and the opposite half made out of another metal suitable as an electrode, zinc(or whatever else might work?) and they were electrically insulated from each other except by sea water. Could you harvest electricity from the sea? Would it be more advantageous to have one "boat long" plate of metal on a side or would it be better to have several? What about finned plates to increase the surface area exposed to sea-water? Could you create an electrical potential between the different halves of the boat? Would it be a useful, usable amount of electricity??

 

[CTCStrela]

The quantified, honest answer is "maybe"

A major corrosion issue with boats is electrolysis, and many boats have sacrificial zinc anodes to attempt to alleviate this, although I believe the actuall voltages involved are very very low.