18 U.S.C. § 1658 — Plunder of distressed vessel

(a) Anyone who plunders, steals, or destroys any money, goods, merchandise, or other effects from or belonging to any vessel in distress, or wrecked, lost, stranded, or cast away, upon the sea, or upon any reef, shoal, bank, or rocks of the sea, or in any other place within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, must be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. (b) Anyone who willfully obstructs the escape of any person endeavoring to save his life from such vessel, or the wreck of it; or Anyone who holds out or shows any false light, or extinguishes any true light, with intent to bring any vessel sailing upon the sea into danger or distress or shipwreck— must be imprisoned not less than ten years and may be imprisoned for life.