A Southwest Harbor company has spent a year fighting the state for ownership of a mysterious sunken schooner off the coast of Bar Harbor.

In two months, the court will finally release the ship’s identity.

JJM LLC initiated the legal process last March with a maritime claim in U.S. District Court, seeking ownership of “one abandoned and submerged vessel” found about 6 nautical miles off the coast of Bar Harbor.

Adhering to maritime law, JJM listed the vessel as a “defendant” in court records and filed a warrant for her arrest by the United States Marshal for the District of Maine.

Although the ship remains underwater, it is legally in JJM’s custody.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen agreed last year to seal the ship’s name and coordinates. For now, all the public knows is that the vessel was a two-masted schooner that sank sometime in the late 1890s while transporting stone pavers, used to fill gaps in cobblestone streets.

Attorneys for the Maine State Museum intervened in April, claiming ownership. Torresen said Friday that she is still allowing any other party that can prove ownership to come forward.

JJM has hired two divers to investigate the sunken ship next month. Both sides are requesting a November trial date, but they’ll most likely resolve the case before then.

PERSONAL ARTIFACTS AMID PAVERS

The state asked Torresen to release the ship’s identity in February, and JJM objected last week.

After a brief hearing Friday morning — most of which was spent behind closed doors in Torresen’s chambers — the company’s attorney, Benjamin Ford, said he believes Torresen’s six-week deadline is fair.

“We respect the people’s desire to learn more about this case, and we look forward to sharing that story,” Ford said.

Assistant Attorney General Lauren Parker wrote that the ship’s name and history will be integral to both sides’ cases. The public also has a right to most court records.

“Party anonymity is warranted only in exceptional circumstances not present in this fight over an abandoned and submerged vessel,” Parker wrote.

JJM has asked that the information still be withheld out of concern someone might illegally interfere with its efforts. In court records, Ford warned of amateur “souvenir divers” who might pilfer the site themselves, without regard for their safety or the integrity of the artifacts.

One of JJM’s diving experts, Richard Simon, remarked he was able to find the ship’s whereabouts “within seconds” of searching its name on Google.

“The words describing the demise of the vessel in the latter part of the 19th century as described in documents from both my searches would lead any amateur wreck diver to within a few hundred yards of the wreck site,” Simon wrote in court records. “More sophisticated divers, such as myself and some of my colleagues, could narrow the search even further.”

Parker, however, pointed out that the ship is legally already in JJM’s custody. She was not aware of any “specific, credible threats” to the ship or its belongings and argued that sharing the ship’s name would not constitute “a ready invitation for pillaging.”

Ford deflected interest in the ship last year, remarking that the ship’s pavers were not “particularly sexy cargo.”

In court records, he and Simon acknowledged some personal artifacts aboard, like cups and plates.

“Personal objects have important historical value,” Simon wrote. “Recovery and display of the personal items tells a powerful story about the history of this place.”