History Main / SalvagePirates

* {{Downplayed}} example in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Auto-Erotic Assimilation." Rick makes a point of checking out an alien distress beacon in case it turns out the ship is empty and full of stuff he can loot without consequence. It's not clear what he'd do if he ''did'' find survivors [[spoiler:at least, ones that aren't [[PuppeteerParasite possessed]] by [[HiveMind his ex-girlfriend]]]].

* In two Robinson-esque novels by Creator/JulesVerne, ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' and ''Literature/TwoYearsVacation'', again the first ships to arrive to the islands are pirate ships.

* Averted: In the opening scenes of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', a deep-space salvage crew is disappointed to find Ripley still alive in stasis, because "there goes our salvage, boys". However, they resist the temptation to just kill her and salvage the shuttle anyways. Most likely because their salvaging operation was a legit business, and murder wasn't even on the table.

* OlderThanRadio: In the original ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', the first European ship to arrive to the island (eventually rescuing Robinson) is one where the crew has mutinied, and they are described as "pirates" in the LongTitle of the novel.

* Georgi [=LaForge=] ran into a crew of Pakled pirates once in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. ("We are far from home.")

-->-- "[[Recap/FireflyE08OutOfGas Out of Gas]]", ''Series/{{Firefly}}''

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman''

* A non-illegal version is in Creator/IsaacAsimov's story ''The Martian Way''. Its a professional job where people salvage space junk and scraps of metal, rock, etc. and sell them later. They do consider stealing water, but only because a politician called [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hilder]] limits water trade (which is scarce on Mars).

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoWon'', by Anne [=McCaffrey=] and Jody Lynn Nye, and ''The Ship Errant'', by Jody Lynn Nye solo: The brainship Carialle once suffered a fuel tank explosion as the result of sabotage. As she drifted in space, she detected movement on her outer hull, but was unable to generate a signal to get the attention of whoever it was. Later rescued, repaired and returned to service, Carialle re-encounters the salvagers after a considerable period of time. The younger members of the group are profoundly shocked and apologetic; they hadn't realized that the ship they had salvaged parts from was a brainship. Their leader, however, certainly knew -- he stole Carialle's ID plate from the wall of the control room. He winds up going to prison for a long, long time. Carialle, however, manages to help the younger crewmembers get away, since they helped her resolve the current crisis.
* The protagonists in "Beachworld" from Stephen King's ''{{Literature/Skeleton Crew}}'' are salvage pirates, although they are non-villainous examples. They try to do the right thing by rescuing the survivor of the crashed ship that they've come to salvage [[spoiler:only to find that the planet's sand is a monstrous GeniusLoci out to kill them]].
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', Hiro and the Mafia [[{{Mook}}s goons]] get a boat sunk out from under them by an ex-Soviet missile submarine, and have to turn the tables on a shipload of pirates that comes to steal their liferaft and kidnap them and sell them into slavery.

* An InvokedTrope in the final episode of ''Series/BlakesSeven''. After crashlanding on a WretchedHive, Avon sends out a distress call knowing someone will turn up to kill any survivors, and he can kill them in turn and steal their vehicle.

* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' John became stranded in the [[ElephantGraveyard Leviathan burial space]] aboard an elderly Leviathan without the fuel to reach any planet. The Leviathan is eventually boarded by salvagers looking to harvest valuable nerve tissue and they try to kill John so he can't reveal the location.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "[[http://tinyurl.com/4gj59w Many Happy Returns]]". Number 6 escapes the Village on a raft and encounters a fishing boat whose crew steals his belongings. He ends up fighting them and eventually captures them.

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E3ExtremeRisk}} Extreme Risk]]", the conflict is over the Malon attempting to salvage Voyager's multi-spatial probe from a gas giant despite their objections.
** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E18Rise}} Rise]]", an alien race is [[ColonyDrop sending asteroids to impact a planetary colony]], so they can claim the planet for themselves after everyone has been evacuated.
** "Workforce", Voyager hits a radiation mine, forcing everyone to leave, except for the Emergency Medical Hologram who is immune to radiation. Turns out the mine was laid by SalvagePirates whom are eager to get their hands on the ship. Fortunately the CrewOfOne can become an Emergency Command Hologram, who makes it clear that's not going to happen.

See also SpacePirates, BedouinRescueService, ScavengerWorld, and CavalryBetrayal.

See also SpacePirates, BedouinRescueService, and CavalryBetrayal.

* The entire concept behind the philosophy of Municipal Darwinism from ''Film/MortalEngines'' - the larger and more powerful traction cities, such as London, prey upon other cities and mobile towns, capturing them and taking them apart for any resources, meaning that the entirety of Western civilisation in the film [[ScavengerWorld is this in some way]]. As Valentine states, the whole concept is unsustainable in the long run, due to the ever-shrinking numbers of mobile settlements meaning larger cities like London can't sustain themselves indefinitely. [[VisionaryVillain He has a solution]], it's just a rather extreme one...

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoWon'', by Anne [=McCaffrey=] and Jody Lynn Nye, and ''The Ship Errant'', by Jody Lynn Nye solo: The brainship Carialle once suffered a fuel tank explosion as the result of sabotage. As she drifted in space, she detected movement on her outer hull, but was unable to generate a signal to get the attention of whoever it was. Later rescued, repaired and returned to service, Carialle re-encounters the salvagers after a considerable period of time. The younger members of the group are profoundly shocked and apologetic; they hadn't realized that the ship they had salvaged parts from was a brainship. Their leader, however, certainly knew - he stole Carialle's ID plate from the wall of the control room. He winds up going to prison for a long, long time. Carialle, however, manages to help the younger crewmembers get away, since they helped her resolve the current crisis.

* A version of this from ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy''. Luke messed up his X-Wing's systems while escaping a TractorBeam and is stranded light-years from anything, unable to contact anyone. Within a few hours Talon Karrde, head of a smuggling/intelligence organization, arrives on the scene claiming coincidence, and offers not only to take Luke but also his ship, for a fee. Luke is wary, thinking of exactly this trope, but if he refuses he'll just be either blasted or left to hang in the void again. Soon, though, he finds that they found him using a Force-Sensitive woman who hates him, and Grand Admiral Thrawn has put out word that he's stranded in the area and could be worth something. Normally Karrde, being both a businessman and pretty decent, would be happy to save random drifters with or without a fee, but Luke complicates a lot of things, and he considers handing him over to Thrawn. [[spoiler: He doesn't.]]

** Happens again in "[[Recap/FireflyE06OurMrsReynolds Our Mrs. Reynolds]]", [[spoiler: though bordering on SpacePirates, as they deliberately engineered a deathtrap in order to claim the then-derelict ship.]]

* {{Downplayed}} example in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Auto-Erotic Assimilation." Rick makes a point of checking out an alien distress beacon in case it turns out the ship is empty and full of stuff he can loot without consequence. It's not clear what he'd do if he ''did'' find survivors [[spoiler: at least, ones that aren't [[PuppeteerParasite possessed]] by [[HiveMind his ex-girlfriend]]]].

* After wandering aimlessly around the ruins looking for help at the beginning of ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'', Will finally manages to hail someone on the radio. Unfortunately, the person on the end is a rogue sergeant who orders his men to steal Will's weapons and supplies, and to make sure they kill him while they're at it.
* In ''VideoGame/TheDaedalusEncounter'', you, Zack Smith, and [[Creator/TiaCarrere Ari Matheson]] were SpaceMarines fighting the Vakkar aliens. After the war ended, leaving [[BrainInAJar your brain]] the only part of you left alive, Zack and Ari become this trope, hoping to salvage from the enemy ships they helped disable during the war. When the search turns up fruitless, Zack decides to head for the Mizar sector, where upon they crash into a huge, organic spacecraft drifting toward the nearest sun, along with an infestation of Crin aliens that slaughtered the crew inside. The only hope is for Zack and Ari to board it, along with your remote probe, and figure out a way to fix both ships in time.
* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'', selling the occupants as slaves was actually the only way to get rid of an EscapePod after you scooped it up. The remake addresses this by handing you a semi-random reward either from the distressed spacer's insurance provider or the police, depending whether or not they were wanted for anything, and if you happen to scoop up a pod containing contraband you can turn it over to the police for a token fee. Releasing a slave in this manner can sometimes [[VideogameCaringPotential earn you a very large thank-you cheque from their next-of-kin.]]
* "Ninja salvaging" is a viable (if somewhat short) career path in ''VideoGame/EveOnline''. The salvager won't even be marked as an outlaw if he only dismantles the wrecks for parts and leaves the cargo alone. Also, people stuck in wormhole systems can occasionally find someone to point them to an exit wormhole for a price.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Oolite}}'', picking up abandoned cargo and other space debris is perfectly legal, regardless of how they got there in the first place. Bounty hunting can become essentially [[{{Privateer}} legitimized piracy]], since the player can scoop the cargo they leave behind and sell it the same way the pirates planned on exploiting their would-be victims. One especially underhanded (though still perfectly legal) method involves letting the pirates splash their targets, then swooping down on them and picking up both sides' derelict cargo.

* ''Comicbook/FridayThe13thJasonVsJasonX'' opens with bunch of people finding the wreckage of the spaceship ''Grendel'' drifting in space, and boarding it in search of "booty". They end up as the first victims in the comic, as Jason Voorhees returns back to life just after their arrival.

* The first installment of Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Bio of a Space Tyrant}}'' revolves around this happening [[FromBadToWorse again and again]] to the refugee ship carrying hero Hope Hubris and his ever-dwindling family.

See also SpacePirates and BedouinRescueService.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wreckers.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Cornish wreckers at work]]

Our heroes are adrift and need of rescue. Maybe they are in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Maybe they are in an escape pod or a damaged starship floating in the vastness of space. Maybe their airplane or spaceship crashed in a desert, or a jungle, or on an uncharted island or planet. They need rescue.

* ''Film/TheDemoniacs'' is about a gang of wreckers who lure ships on to the rocks on the coast of northern France. The kill any survivors of the wreck and steal anything worth stealing.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Oolite}}'', picking up abandoned cargo and other space debris is perfectly legal, regardless of how they got there in the first place. Bounty hunting can become essentially [[{{Privateer}} legitimized piracy]], since the player can scoop the cargo they leave behind and sell it [[NotSoDifferent the same way the pirates planned on exploiting their would-be victims]]. One especially underhanded (though still perfectly legal) method involves letting the pirates splash their targets, then swooping down on them and picking up both sides' derelict cargo.

* A non-illegal version is in Creator/IsaacAsimov's story ''The Martian Way''. Its a professional job where people salvage space junk and scraps of metal, rock, etc. and sell them later. They do consider stealing water, but only because a politician called [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hilder]] limits water trade, (water is scarce on Mars.)

* ''Comicbook/FridayThe13thJasonVsJasonX'' opens with bunch of people finding the wreckage of the spaceship ''Grendel'' drifting in space, and boarding it in search of "booty". They end up as the first victims in the comic, as Jason Voorhees returns back to life just after their arrival.

* ''Film/DiaryOfTheDead'' has soldiers encounter the main characters at one part. They order them to turn off their camera (at gunpoint no less) and when it turns back on, the soldiers are driving away with all their provisions after terrorizing them for god only knows how long.

* In ''Film/TheCarsThatAteParis'', the townsfolk make a living by causing car accidents and then scavenging the parts from the wrecks.
* This is the plot of both versions of ''Film/TheFog''. Six of the founders of the town of Antonio Bay deliberately lured a clipper ship carrying gold intended to fund a leper colony into sinking off the coast of the town, then used the loot to fund building the town and its church. Unfortunately, on the 100th anniversary of the town's founding, the crew's vengeful spirits return from the grave to enact revenge on [[SinsOfOurFathers the descendants of the founders]].

* OlderThanRadio: In the original ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', the first European ship to arrive to the island (eventually rescuing Robinson) is one where the crew has mutinied, and they are described as "pirates" in the LongTitle of the novel.
* In two Robinson-esque novels by Creator/JulesVerne, ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' and ''Literature/TwoYearsVacation'', again the first ships to arrive to the islands are pirate ships.
* In the novel ''Literature/ThisPerfectDay'' by Ira Levin, Chip and Lilac find an "abandoned" boat and use it to try to escape for an island outside of the control of the supercomputer that rules the world. The first ship from the island they come across claims to be a service to rescue new "immigrants" from the mainland, but actually, the guy pulls a gun on them, steals their ship, and dumps them overboard into the sea to drown. They're rescued a few minutes later by the real immigrant rescue boat, however.
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', Hiro and the Mafia [[{{Mook}}s goons]] get a boat sunk out from under them by an ex-Soviet missile submarine, and have to turn the tables on a shipload of pirates that comes to steal their liferaft and kidnap them and sell them into slavery.

* A non-illegal version is in Creator/IsaacAsimov's story ''The Martian Way''. Its a professional job where people salvage space junk and scraps of metal, rock, etc. and sell them later. They do consider stealing water, but only because a politician called [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hilder]] limits water trade, (water is scarce on Mars.)
* Played with in KJ Parker's ''Evil for Evil''. Instead of being in a vehicle or something, the character wakes up in a field after being injured in a battle. The SalvagePirates show up to collect his gear and end up taking him, too, thinking they can ransom him to the enemy. He eventually escapes after becoming ultra paranoid that they'll do just that.
* When the father in ''Literature/SwissFamilyRobinson'' first sees the English ship in the bay, far away from the normal ship lanes, at first he fears that these are pirates who will threaten his family and guest [[spoiler:rather then [[SubvertedTrope reuniting them with the outside world]]]].

* ''Literature/TheShipWhoWon'', by Anne [=McCaffrey=] and Jody Lynn Nye, and ''The Ship Errant'', by Jody Lynn Nye solo: The brainship Carialle once suffered a fuel tank explosion as the result of sabotage. As she drifted in space, she detected movement on her outer hull, but was unable to generate a signal to get the attention of whoever it was. Later rescued, repaired and returned to service, Carialle re-encounters the salvagers after a considerable period of time. The younger members of the group are profoundly shocked and apologetic; they hadn't realized that the ship they had salvaged parts from was a brainship. Their leader, however, certainly knew - he stole Carialle's ID plate from the wall of the control room. He winds up going to prison for a long, long time. Carialle, however, manages to help the younger crewmembers get away, since they helped her resolve the current crisis.
* The plot of ''Literature/JamaicaInn'' follows a group of murderous wreckers who run ships aground, kill the sailors and steal the loot.
* In the ''Literature/KateShugak'' short story "Wreck Rights", Kate and Jim investigate a group of modern day 'wreckers', who cause truck crashes on a steep mountain and then loot the goods being transported out of the wrecked trucks. Kate even references ''Literature/JamaicaInn'' by name.
* The protagonists in "Beachworld" from Stephen King's ''{{Literature/Skeleton Crew}}'' are salvage pirates, although they are non-villainous examples. They try to do the right thing by rescuing the survivor of the crashed ship that they've come to salvage [[spoiler:only to find that the planet's sand is a monstrous GeniusLoci out to kill them]].
* ''Literature/TheCrownerJohnMysteries'' are set in Devon and Cornwall, where the coastal villages have a tradition of salvaging whatever they can from shipwrecks. As any salvage legally belongs to the Crown, many of the villages will fail to declare the shipwreck to the proper authority (the Coroner), and hide any signs of the wreck. In some extreme cases, they will murder any survivors of the wreck so there is no one to report what happened.

* The first episode of the TV series ''Series/{{Crusoe}}'' features the titular castaway being threatened by pirates/escaped convicts, as well as the corrupt Spanish jailers who are after them.

* Georgi [=LaForge=] ran into a crew of Pakled pirates once in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. ("We are far from home.")
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'': The crew of the Eureka Maru were originally planning to do this to the Andromeda Ascendant. Well, technically they weren't expecting anyone to still be alive after three centuries orbiting a black hole but their employer still brought along a few mercs on ice. Instead, the captain and the ship's AI were still there, and he actually recruited most of them into his crusade to restore the Commonwealth.
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' John became stranded in the [[ElephantGraveyard Leviathan burial space]] aboard an elderly Leviathan without the fuel to reach any planet. The Leviathan is eventually boarded by salvagers looking to harvest valuable nerve tissue and they try to kill John so he can't reveal the location.
* ''Series/TheCoroner'': "Capsized" involves a shipwreck that deposits multiple cargo containers on the coast. The locals start looting the containers, and Jane gets involved when one of the looters turns up dead in one of the containers.
* In the MadeForTVMovie ''Desperate Voyage'' (1980), Creator/ChristopherPlummer's character captains a ship of RuthlessModernPirates who respond to vessels in distress, stripping them of anything of value and then murdering the crew.
* An InvokedTrope in the final episode of ''Series/BlakesSeven''. After crashlanding on a WretchedHive, Avon sends out a distress call knowing someone will turn up to kill any survivors, and he can kill them in turn and steal their vehicle.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest III: The Pirates of Pestulon'' begins with Roger Wilco's escape pod picked up by a salvage ship helmed by a robot; the robot is more interested in picking up space garbage than picking off Roger, but he'll do so if you get his attention. The ''rats'' present a more direct threat, stealing Roger's stuff and beating the crap out of him if he tries to make off with their loot.

* And in the original ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'', selling the occupants as slaves was actually the only way to get rid of an EscapePod after you scooped it up. The remake addresses this by handing you a semi-random reward either from the distressed spacer's insurance provider or the police, depending whether or not they were wanted for anything, and if you happen to scoop up a pod containing contraband you can turn it over to the police for a token fee. Releasing a slave in this manner can sometimes [[VideogameCaringPotential earn you a very large thank-you cheque from their next-of-kin.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheDaedalusEncounter'', you, Zack Smith, and [[Creator/TiaCarrere Ari Matheson]] were SpaceMarines fighting the Vakkar aliens. After the war ended, leaving [[BrainInAJar your brain]] the only part of you left alive, Zack and Ari become this trope, hoping to salvage from the enemy ships they helped disable during the war. When the search turns up fruitless, Zack decides to head for the Mizar sector, where upon they crash into a huge, organic spacecraft drifting toward the nearest sun, along with an infestation of Crin aliens that slaughtered the crew inside. The only hope is for Zack and Ari to board it, along with your remote probe, and figure out a way to fix both ships in time.
* After wandering aimlessly around the ruins looking for help at the beginning of ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'', Will finally manages to hail someone on the radio. Unfortunately, the person on the end is a rogue sergeant who orders his men to steal Will's weapons and supplies, and to make sure they kill him while they're at it.
* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'': If you run out of fuel and are drifting in space (with or without you distress beacon) there is a chance you 'rescuers' will be more interested in helping themselves to your ship.

* VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight: If you run out of fuel and are drifting in space (with or without you distress beacon) there is a chance you 'rescuers' will be more interested in helping themselves to your ship.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The Sangtee Empire captures ships found stranded in their space and enslaves any outsiders found aboard. SpacePirates later use their knowledge of the Empire's practice of this to steal Empire ships by putting an apparently disabled ship near a shipping lane with the pirates aboard playing dead in space suits and then ambushing the Empire troops when they pull the ship in.