[TML] Salvage Operations

[Richard Aiken]

On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Steve Burchett <sburchett at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you in advance for any links and/or opinions.

Don't know of any links, but I'll give an opinion.  And I'm surprised
nobody else has offered one, yet.  ISTR a few quite detailed responses
here, when this came up in previous discussions.

The following is based on my recollections of such previous posts (and
is how I would run it IMTU).

First off, you need to determine who owns/owned the boat:

If it was a government-owned craft (military or otherwise), then the
players are most likely simply out of luck.  Government ownership
never lapses (for example, the US Navy still owns the USS Monitor,
sunk for over two centuries).  If the actual government concerned
isn't extant, they *might* have a claim . . . if there isn't an
Imperially-recognized successor government.  The upside is that - if
there isn't a government to lay claim to the boat, the crew can likely
get it registered with the Imperium without too much trouble.  Of
course, depending on how badly it's damaged, passing the requisite
safety inspections could be an interesting proposition.  And if the
boat appears to have been lost due to violence rather than mischance,
there will be an investigation (which might result in the ship being
impounded for evidence purposes for an inconveniently-long time).

If it was a civilian craft that's been missing for twenty years, the
loss insurance has already paid off and the insurance company was long
ago awarded title.  Whether or not it still *has* that title is
another question.  It may retain it or it may have sold it (perhaps
for only a few centicreds on the credit) to a prospective salvage
firm.  This would depend on how often such "lost" ships turn up IYTU;
rare recoveries would mean the company would cut it's losses and sell
quickly, more common recoveries likely mean it hangs onto such titles
"just in case."

If it's a civilian craft, your PCs will have to make a good faith
effort to locate the current title holder and alert him/her/it to the
find.  But - and it's a BIG but - the PCs can put a lien on the title
for all repairs necessary to make their find flyable once again *and*
all necessary crew salaries for any travel required *and* a
"reasonable" fee for their time and trouble.  Unless the ship is in
very good shape and relatively valuable, the title holder might well
sign over title to the PCs for little or nothing, rather than pay off
their lien.  Then all the PCs need do is get it repaired, inspected
and registered.

Of course, all of the above assumes that the boat is actually legally
abandoned.  If even so much as one crewmember remains alive in a low
berth (passengers don't count), the boat has not been abandoned and
the PCs have no legal claim to it.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein