One boat story and one story not boat related.
Wife, daughter, and I were on a whale watch boat out of Booth Bay or Bar Harbor in Maine, and I was wearing the diamond/sapphire ring I had inherited when my dad passed away. We were a long ways out, when I happened to notice the ring was not on my finger. I panicked, and then remembered that shortly before, I had gone to the head at the rear of the boat. I wnet back, looked all around, but couldn't find it. All I could think of was that the ring was in several hundred feet of water and no way to recover it, or where it even fell overboard.
I was thinking about how I could tell my mother I had lost dad's ring, when the wife suggested I go up and ask the Captain if anyone turned a ring in. Well, I did that, and lo and behold, a woman had found the ring on the deck by the head and had turned it in. After identifying it, I got the ring back and placed it in my pants pocket. I then found the lady and gave her a $100.00 and profusely thanked her. She didn't want the money, but I insisted and she finally took it.
The other story involved two portable police radios

. The first one I lost because I had placed it on the roof of the cruiser and forgot about it when I went out on patrol. The City let that one slide as "accidents will happen". The 2nd time I did the exact same thing, I had to pay for the radio. Never lost another one after that.