I like the idea Baron, but I don't think a ship abandoned in the vacuum of space would fall apart that fast. Perhaps 2 components a year, but not 2 a month.
There is a realistic difference between abandoning a ship and mothballing it, but perhaps there doesn't need to be a game play distinction. It would save some coding I would think if the same function were reused. You could say...
- Any ship can be mothballed regardless of whether it's at a space yard or not.
- Mothballed ships can be only be unmothballed if they are in a sector with a space yard.
- Mothballed ships take gradual damage, unless they are in a sector with a space yard.
I think if this is done though, two things should be changed as well. Well one for sure and the other maybe.
For sure mothballed ships should not give a system view as they do now. They should be like mines in that respect instead of like sats. This way the ship isn't really a derelict, it still belongs to the empire that mothballed it, but it could be easily snuck up on and taken by another emnpire with boarding ships.
The other thing that maybe should happen is the ability to booby trap mothballed ships. Say the SDD would still work, even though it's mothnballed. But that might not be fair, so I am not sure about that. I would like that idea better if SDD's werent' a hundred percent effective, but that's another argument. 
Geoschmo