May 27—When the Delphini sank off the coast of Mount Desert Island in the 1890s, historian Susan O’Neill wrote that it was both “a tale of stubborn egocentricity on the part of her captain” and “a fluke of strange good fortune” for the owners of the Delphini’s cargo, which they had just insured that morning.
“The Delphini still sits there in the Sound, buried under tons of water and granite,” O’Neill wrote in a 1978 manuscript shared by the Mount Desert Island Historical Society.
The society’s collections manager believes it is most likely the ship at the center of a legal battle over ownership of a sunken vessel near Bar Harbor.
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But it’s not the same name that was unsealed Friday under a judge’s orders as lawyers for the Maine State Museum and a private salvage company vie for rightful ownership.
Court records show the sunken boat was called the Delhi, which happens to be the name of a Saco schooner that newspapers reported had sunk in the same area in 1893 carrying granite pavers on the way to New York.
That April, various Maine papers reported that a schooner named Delhi from Saco struck ice in the Somes Sound near Mount Desert Island “and stove in her port side, and filled,” sinking in “22 fathoms of water.”
A schooner — or potentially multiple schooners — of the same name and place also traveled to the West Indies in 1888, was damaged in 1886 after being “fouled” by another boat in Vineyard Haven and had saved the crew of another near Savannah, Georgia, in 1877.
Any one of these, or possibly all or none of them, could be the same schooner that is now the subject of a legal battle in federal court and could have longstanding implications for historic salvage efforts.
Benjamin Ford, a lawyer representing JJM, the private salvaging company that started the case, declined to elaborate on the ship’s history and identify which one it could be. Before the company was ordered to publicly identify the ship’s name, it had only been known as “one abandoned and submerged vessel.”
No one has really said why this ship is so special. And why, after more than 130 years, a salvage company would find value in it. Historians say the legal case itself could be valuable in that it might create a process for the next time someone encounters a wreck in state or federal waters.
“If someone were to discover Cleopatra’s barge off the coast of Portland, we’d want to make sure there was a reasonable process of preserving its history for Maine and Maine’s people,” said Maine State Museum Director Bernard Fishman.
Ford said Friday that JJM is only interested in the ship’s cargo of granite pavers, although he declined to elaborate on why JJM wants them.
“If you had a pencil that was from a shipwreck, it would be more interesting than a pencil from Kmart,” Ford said.
FINDING THE RIGHT DELHI
Two possible names for the boat were discussed behind closed doors, according to court records.
One was easily identifiable online. A diving expert wrote in court records earlier this year that, after searching one of the names on Google, he was able to find information about the ship “within seconds.” It’s not clear if that’s the name that was released.
The first court filing on Friday identified the ship as the “Delphi,” which was corrected within in an hour to the “Delhi.”
There were hundreds of ships sailing around Maine at the time, often changing names with new ownership, said Amanda Pleau, communications and marketing manager of the Maine Maritime Museum.
Fishman said Tuesday that naming boats “Delhi” was as common during that era as naming dogs “Caesar,” and that ships often changed names — particularly after wrecks — because of the bad luck.
With thousands of newspaper stories dedicated to these ships’ wrecks and whereabouts, it’s also highly likely that the names of the different ships got conflated, they both said.
“It could be that at some point, a firsthand account might have been misattributed,” said Pleau. “The record keeping is not 100% reliable.”
Fishman didn’t know if the shipwreck at the center of this case is the same ship as Saco’s Delhi, but he questioned whether the same boat could have made the voyage to the West Indies. His impression was that the ship that wrecked off Mount Desert Island was meant only for short transports, like “flatbed trucks,” but he admitted it could have been possible.
PRESERVING HISTORY
JJM filed a unique maritime claim last year seeking ownership of the wreck. Then attorneys representing the state museum filed their own “statement of right or interest” in the boat a month later. The state urged U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen to unseal the ship’s name last month, arguing that the public has a right to most court records.
When asked about the case Friday night, a spokesperson for the Office of the Maine Attorney General said they don’t comment on pending litigation.
Although JJM says it is only interested in the pavers, Ford said both parties are still hung up on how to responsibly excavate personal artifacts on board that would be valuable in a museum.
Ford said the company has offered to excavate other historical items, like tea cups and saucers, in exchange for ownership of the stones.
“We really want to protect the wreck site,” Ford said. “I think it’s important for everybody, for all of your readers, to look at personal items that came from this period. … We don’t want that stuff to end up on someone’s mantle.”
Fishman said that the museum is interested in reaching an outcome that “everyone can live with” — and a decision that would outline the process for preserving a wreck like this the next time one is discovered, one that “preserves Maine’s history for the people of Maine.”
He said the state normally doesn’t rely on outside groups for archaeological work, but that he’s willing to keep an open mind.
“We would definitely need to be included and make sure the standards of excavation are followed,” he said. “Generally, we would want our own people with their expertise in charge, or in the very least, supervising.”
Pleau said that although the Maine Maritime Museum is not involved in the case, she looks forward to its resolution in terms of creating a process for addressing wrecks found in state or federal waters.
“There is this question of ethics in all of this,” Pleau said. When someone discovers a wreck in state or federal waters, do they have any rights if there are no other plans for it? “But then, do these items actually belong in a museum?” Pleau went on. “Museums can’t just take something from them because they’re old and cool.”
Ford said the ship’s exact coordinates are secret, for now, to protect it from amateur divers who could disrupt the fragile site or hurt themselves. He said a court order prevents him and any other parties from sharing information that could reveal its whereabouts.
While the boat is physically underwater, legally, it’s in the court’s ownership until the case is resolved.
“If you’re going to go diving for this thing, you better bring your lawyer,” Ford said.
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