The legal battle over a 130-year-old sunken ship off the coast of Bar Harbor has gotten messier after a private salvaging company sued the National Park Service on Tuesday.

JJM, a company based in Southwest Harbor, has spent more than a year fighting the Maine State Museum in court for the legal rights to the shipwreck about six miles off Mount Desert Island. JJM filed a maritime claim in U.S. District Court in Bangor in March 2024, saying it found the vessel and is seeking ownership of it.

Last month, the National Park Service deemed the wreck eligible for its National Register of Historic Places, at the state of Maine’s request. The state has consistently argued that the wreck meets the national register’s criteria — which, under the federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act, means Maine has control of the wreck, the state’s attorneys say.

JJM disagreed with the National Park Service’s decision, which the company said in its lawsuit relied exclusively on the state’s experts “without reviewing any substantive evidence or conducting its own investigation of disputed facts and disputed expert opinions.”

The company presented its own experts to the park service and urged the agency in July not to deem the wreck eligible for the register. JJM’s attorney said Wednesday that he also filed an administrative appeal with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

JJM is asking a U.S. District Court judge to vacate the park service’s eligibility determination and to let a federal judge decide who has a legal right to the wreck.

Archaeologist Michael Roller, who works for the park service and deemed the wreck eligible for the national register, wrote in a report on his findings that the state told him that the ship — named the Delhi — was a schooner that sank in the late 19th century while embarking for Baltimore, carrying 32,000 granite pavers.

The ship’s name was sealed in court records until a judge ordered its release in May, yet its identity remains a mystery, in part because “Delhi” was a common ship name. The Mount Desert Island Historical Society believes the ship could also be the Delphini, a vessel that sank spectacularly off the coast of Mount Desert Island after having just been insured that morning.

Yet the greatest disagreement in court has nothing to do with the ship’s history; it has to do with its current condition underwater.

The state’s experts believe much of the ship has remained intact, despite its age, because of how deeply buried it is in underwater sediment.

JJM has argued the ship is less preserved, and that it has the capacity to salvage what historical artifacts still remain, like tea cups and saucers used by the crew. There were no known fatalities aboard the Delhi.

Attorney Benjamin Ford said JJM is willing to give those items to the state if JJM can keep the pavers.

The museum’s director, Bernard Fishman, said earlier this year he was open to involving JJM but that the state generally doesn’t work with outside groups for archaeological work because of its high standards for such projects.

JJM fears that means the ship will never be recovered, Ford said, because the state doesn’t have the same resources as the company.

“We’re fighting about who owns what in court,” Ford said. “But the argument is really, ‘How do we preserve this?’ Not who owns it.”