The daytime insurance agent Jess Arno (Warner Baxter), moonlights as an undercover salvager at night. Diver searches of the site specified by the salvager failed to find either wreck. His novel "Time Salvager" was optioned to Paramount, with Michael Bay attached to direct. It was stripped of its equipment by a salvager in the 1950s. "The Salvager" is occasionally aired on Quest. RMS Titanic Inc. has been the wreck's legal salvager since 1994. In New River, Cooley sustained himself as a salvager and farmer, cultivating and milling arrowroot.