Some people say that under the law of the sea, any ship found on the high seas belongs to the person who finds it, so if I find an aircraft carrier or a submarine on the high seas, it belongs to the p

Some people say that under the law of the sea, any ship found on the high seas belongs to the person who finds it, so if I find an aircraft carrier or a submarine on the high seas, it belongs to the person who finds it. The law of the sea doesn't say that, and the unwritten tradition is that whoever finds a "shipwreck" owns it. Again, the successful Spanish lawsuit in 2012 showed that ships owned by the state, such as warships, are owned by the original state even if they are salvaged on the high seas. So even if you find an aircraft carrier or submarine sunk in WWII on the high seas, you don't own it.