Actually that's not 100% correct. Most steel is not at risk, but some forms of high strength steel are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement in salt water. I do

Actually that's not 100% correct. Most steel is not at risk, but some forms of high strength steel are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement in salt water. I don't have enough info to comment on this case, and I don't trust the article because the author can't even get stress vs strain right, but it could be the problem here.