Delhi
Schooner · United States · Lost 1893 · Penobscot Bay & Midcoast Maine
A Saco-built granite schooner sank in Somes Sound in 1893 after striking floating ice, and 130 years later became the subject of a landmark shipwreck-ownership court case.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1873 at Saco, Maine, the schooner Delhi (also recorded historically as Delphini) was loaded with 32,000 granite paving stones at Hall Quarry on Mount Desert Island when she struck a cake of floating ice while beating out of Somes Sound in April 1893. Water poured in through a stove porthole and she sank quickly, though her crew escaped by boat. Her masts stood above the water for decades until the Coast Guard cut them during World War II. Rediscovered by a salvage diver in 2023, the wreck became the center of a federal lawsuit over ownership, which the State of Maine won in 2026.
Vessel
- 1873
- Captain Richard F. C. Hartley
- Saco, Maine
- Wood
- 113.1 ft
- 28 ft
- 266
- Sail
- Not established
Loss
- April 1, 1893
- Ice
- Somes Sound, near Hall Quarry, Mount Desert Island, Maine
- Somes Sound
- Hall Quarry, Mount Desert Island, Maine → New York
- 32,000 granite paving stones loaded at Hall Quarry by Campbell & Macomber
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 120 ft
- Hull reported largely intact on the bottom, buried under its cargo of granite paving stones; masts remained visible above water at low tide until the Coast Guard cut them during World War II.
- Not established
- 2023
- Owned by the State of Maine under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act, per a 2026 federal court ruling.
Position
- Not established
- Position withheld to protect the site
- Somes Sound, Mount Desert Island, Maine
Precise coordinates have not been made public amid an active ownership and salvage dispute.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (82/100)
The exact resting position of the wreck has not been made public.
U.S. District Court, District of Maine (JJM, LLC v. S/V Delhi)
Build date, builder, original and retrofitted dimensions, cargo and ownership dispute outcome.
Loss date and location, discovery history, cargo tonnage.
Depth, masts-visible detail, final court ruling.
