Why seawater does not simply dissolve bones in shipwrecks

Would seawater have dissolved every skeleton inside the wrecks of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse?

No; salt water does not dissolve bone that quickly, although biological activity can consume or degrade remains over time.

Salt water does not rapidly dissolve bone on the timescale relevant to twentieth-century wrecks. The panel notes that bones have survived in marine archaeological contexts for centuries, although their preservation varies. Scavengers, microorganisms, and other biological processes can consume or degrade remains long before brine alone would remove them. The exchange therefore cautions against using the phrase 'universal solvent' as an explanation for why remains may be absent from a shipwreck.