Here's the point I'm getting at. If I take my television set and set it out by the side of the road alongside my driveway, and someone comes along and picks up that television and brings it to their home, I can not have the police go and arrest that man for stealing my TV. In this case, putting my television out there is an 'official act of abandonment.' I am in effect saying, "I consider this item to be garbage, and I no longer want it, and I want it to be hauled away." (This may not be a perfect example, because there are probably some places where it's illegal to take items from other people's garbage. But I hope you get my drift.)

I have been told, by people who claim to know, that when a ship is intentionally sunk, that that is equivalent to my putting my television out by the curb. I'd like to know if this is true, in a legal sense.