This vessel was being used as a cargo ship and is therefore not granted immunity. The judge is wrong in this case. There have been precedents of this nature before and the ruling was if the ship in question was acting as a cargo ship at the time it sunk, it was not considered a war ship.
Then Odyssey Marine should prevail, but given the vaugaries of admiralty law and the wacko behavior of U.S. judges, I’m not so sure.