Welcome Paul to the SBO Forum.
A picture of what you are seeing would help. Pipes sometimes are used as conduit to pass wires through bulkheads. Where do the wires go? What are they attached to?
It is questionable that the the metal is brass. Brass often has a short life span on a boat. Copper/Bronze are often a more preferred metal. Sometimes a previous owner will install something unique to your boat. Then we all kind of guess at what the PO was thinking. Why the picture is worth a thousand words....
