[peikenberry]

Sailing Dog is the closest one so far. Salvage laws are complex and depnd a lot on when where and how. But basically if you find the vessel and tow it in, then you can make a salvage claim, that is essentially charge the owner for what you think was the cost of salvaging the vessel. You do not onw the vessel. For you to claim rights to the vessel the owner would have to relinquish their ownership. The exception is an abandoned vessel. And then you have to make a good faith attempt to find the owner of the vessel. Anyway, vessels salvage on the high seas come under admiralty law which is vastly different than civil law us mortals deal with every day. If you salvage a vessel within a state's jurisdiction the it comes under the laws of that state and they vary all over the map.

Read the article above about when it's salvage and when it's a tow. There is a significant difference.