Just one for the more learned than me.
if there is a ship wreck on a reef that is obviously not going to be recovered, has been there for "some time".
is it ok to take thing off of the boat?
and I don't mean cargo more like fog horns or brass valves or propellers ?
or even scrap metal ? (If you had a barge or something)
Historic sites and war graves, certainly not.
My understanding on anything more recent, you still can't take anything without claiming salvage rights as someone (even if it is the insurance company) still owns the vessel and everything on it.
Toph is right, to take anything off the vessel is stealing. If the vessel is aground on a reef it would more than likely be considered a "wreck on the shore." In Qld the "Master of Wrecks" has responsibility for these vessels and I'm pretty sure interfering with a wreck on the shore is a criminal offence. But it's neen a while since I studied that so I could be wrong.
I couldn't do it even if it was legal, too superstitious that the thingammy might come with bad ju-ju 
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Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
I couldn't do it even if it was legal, too superstitious that the thingammy might come with bad ju-ju .
Yep, bad karma, and I'm not superstitious.
Would you take parts off of a road wreck sitting on the side or in a ditch? 
Well, l don't know you, but l would not!
Well, that's a good question. Because I have. And its vaguely sailing related.
Years ago, my wife and I sailed my J24 from Sydney Harbour to Cottage Point Inn - a brisk run under spinnaker, 2 hours Head to Head - arriving in plenty of time for our dinner booking.
Having showered ashore and selected the wine, we took a stroll into the National Park to fill in the afternoon. There I discovered a complete front mudguard which I recognised as being from a Volvo 122S. It turned out to be from the very car I had sold a few years earlier - the car we drove on our honeymoon. So I souvenired the badge and still have it somewhere. Was that wrong?
Fire at will - as Peter Fitzsimons would say.
