Le Griffon
a 17th Century Woodcut/Sketch of Le Griffon
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Le Griffon |
| Builder | French explorer La Salle |
| Launched | 1679 |
| Fate | Disappeared on the return trip of her maiden voyage in 1679 |
| Notes | First full sized sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Barque |
| Tons burthen | 45 tuns |
| Length | 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) |
| Beam | 10-to-15-foot (3 to 5 m) |
| Sail plan | one or two masts; square sails |
| Armament | 7 cannon |
Le Griffon (fr, The Griffin) was a sailing vessel built by French explorer and fur trader René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in the Niagara area of New York in 1679.
Mississagi Straits claim
In 1873, a lighthouse was constructed near the southwest end of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, manned by a resident keeper. A shipwreck was on the adjacent shore a mile north of the Mississagi lighthouse on Manitoulin Island.[2] In 1887, four skeletons were discovered in a depression behind a boulder, and two more in another nearby limestone cave. They were wrapped in birchbark, and identified as Natives at that time. By coincidence, six was the number of sailors on Le Griffin. Found with the skeletons were a number of metal tokens reportedly with French markings, and a silver watch later dated to the 17th century. The possible remains of Le Griffon were found in 1898 by lighthouse keeper Albert Cullis, on a beach on the western edge of Manitoulin Island in northern Lake Huron. Results of testing some of the artifacts were disputed.[3][4] According to one report the wreck had no centerboard; keel was an oak timber a foot square-it was fastened to two parallel timbers running fore and aft inside the ship. Fastenings were 36 inch iron bolts. At the turn of the bilge the hewed timbers which formed the bottom grooved for grounding keels. Bolts and spikes were crude workmanship cut from square bars and threads formed by forcing a nut into the bar and then finished by hand. The iron was a type smelted by wood as fuel in France during the 1600's. Lead caulking was of a type used in French galiots of the period. A couple of lead cups like the end of a plunger for opening drains [tips of rams for loading cannons{?}]. An old indian told lighthouse keeper William Grant that the wreck had been there during the boyhood of his father in 1780s–1790s. The wreck had always been in the memories of the oldest inhabitants; earliest settlers had salvaged iron from the wreck for harrow teeth and used lead from its seams for bullets and fishing weights. Sometime before 1930 a fisherman whose tug was in Mississagi Straits pulling up his anchor found one fluke broken and the other had timbers of a wreck. In the 1930's a Navy commander and a state archeologist saw the hand hewn timbers of the wreck; all that was left was a section of the bottom 15 by 30 feet remained.[5] A 2021 book concludes that Le Griffin was indeed wrecked at Manitoulin Island[6][7]
The skeletons, and most of the artifacts collected from the two caves and the wreck, long stored in the lighthouse, were lost in a series of very unfortunate accidents. The remains of the wreck on the shore were washed away in a storm in 1942. All that is left today is a few pieces of iron, wood and some lead caulking from the ship.
- ↑ Mansfield, J.B., Ed. (1899). History of the Great Lakes: Volume I. Chicago, Illinois: J.H. Beers & Co. pp. 78–90. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Boys Life September 1959 pp. 18, 76–77
- ↑ The Wreck of the Griffon, Kohl and Forsberg, 2015. Seawolf Publishing Co.
- ↑ Ashcroft, Ben. "Le Griffon: The Great Lakes' greatest mystery". The Detroit Free Press.
- ↑ Boys Life September 1959 pp. 76–77
- ↑ "MSRA Newsletter 25". Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2025.
- ↑ Wdet Possible resting place of great lakes most iconic Shipwreck