‘It’s the holy grail of ship wrecks’ Le Griffon, the legendary ship wreck found !

[ARC]

?It?s the holy grail of ship wrecks? Le Griffon, the legendary Lake Michigan ship wreck, possibly found | Fox17

 

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[releventchair]

Been awaiting confirmation it is LaSalle's ship.

 

[ARC]

I still don't know why they call it the "holy grail of shipwrecks"... and it was first found way back...
I just copied pasted the headlines...
I remember this... way back
"Wreckage from the Le Griffon may have been located near Fairport, Michigan by US wreck diver Steve Libert in 2004. Since then, ownership of the potential remains has been the subject of lawsuits involving the discoverers, the state of Michigan, the U.S. federal government and the government of France.
AND " Some scientists concluded it was a bowsprit detached from a ship dating hundreds of years old, while others believe it is a 19th-century pound net (fishing) stake."
From wikipedia source file.
And all the rest of it... that just sorta "hung" there.

 

[releventchair]

Maybe locally it seems a holy grail.
Historic in being first ship of any large size,(known anyway) to ply the lakes above previous obstacle of rapids by approach from the east.
Then too the mystery of it disappearing and the blow to LaSalle. It's cargo of fur,spoiled now, may still be with the wreck. No reports of any salvaged near time of the sinking.
Just report from natives of seeing the ship fighting rough seas.

 

[ARC]

Woodcut picture of ship...
Here for anyone that is interested... I picked and skimmed Wikipedia's pages for these...
just parts of it...
If interested in all of it... google and it hit wiki...

Le Griffon was constructed and launched at or near Cayuga Creek on the Niagara River as a seven-cannon, 45-ton barque. La Salle and Father Louis Hennepin set out on the Le Griffon's maiden voyage on August 7, 1679 with a crew of 32, sailing across Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan through uncharted waters that only canoes had previously explored. La Salle disembarked and on September 18 sent the ship back toward Niagara. On its return trip from Green Bay, Wisconsin, it vanished with all six crew members and a load of furs.

Le Griffon was the first full-sized sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes of North America and she led the way to modern commercial shipping in that part of the world. Historian J.B. Mansfield reported that this "excited the deepest emotions of the Indian tribes, then occupying the shores of these inland waters".[1]

French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, sought a Northwest Passage to China and Japan to extend France's trade. Creating a fur trade monopoly with the Native Americans would finance his quest and building Le Griffon was an "essential link in the scheme".[6] While work continued on Le Griffon in the spring of 1679 as soon as the ice began to break up along the shores of Lake Erie, La Salle sent out men from Fort Frontenac in 15 canoes laden with supplies and merchandise to trade with the Illinois for furs at the trading posts of the upper Huron and Michigan Lakes.[6]
Le Griffon may or may not be considered the first ship on the Great Lakes, depending on what factors one deems necessary to qualify a vessel for that designation. Decking, permanent masts, and bearing a name are a few of the criteria one might use.[notes 1]

Before 1673, the most common vessel on the lakes was the canoe. While smaller canoes were used on rivers and streams, lake canoes were more commonly larger vessels measuring up to about 35 feet long. While some of these were made from a single carved log ("dug out" or "pirogue"), most were bark canoes. Bateaux were also common. They were open vessels (no deck) made of wood measuring up to about 35 feet long and capable of carrying three or four tons of cargo. While they were at times fitted with mast and sails, their primary propulsion was either oars or poles. The sails were merely supplemental for traveling down wind. Their inefficiency at beating to windward made them impractical as sailing vessels, and they were not very safe in open water.

Le Griffon is reported to be the "Holy Grail" of Great Lakes shipwreck hunters.[14] A number of sunken old sailing ships have been suggested to be Le Griffon but, except for the ones proven to be other ships, there has been no positive identification. One candidate is a wreck at the western end of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, with another wreck near Escanaba, Michigan, also proposed.

Le Griffon is considered by some to have been the first ship lost on the Great Lakes. It was another vessel used by LaSalle and Tonti, however, that was the first loss on January 8, 1679. As noted above, sources give its size as either 20 tons or 40 tons. It dragged anchor and ran aground near Thirty Mile Point on Lake Ontario, where it broke apart. Some say that this vessel was named the Frontenac, while others say the other vessel used on LaSalle's expedition was the Frontenac. Some sources confuse the two vessels.

Le Griffon may have been found by the Great Lakes Exploration Group but the potential remains were the subject of lawsuits involving the discoverers, the state of Michigan, the U.S. federal government, and the government of France.[3] Originally discovered in 2001 near Poverty Island, Michigan sonar has shown an object approximately 40 feet by 18 feet (similar to the dimensions of Le Griffon) located under several feet of sediment. In July, 2010 the Great Lakes Exploration Group issued a press release stating that they, the state of Michigan and France had reached agreement to co-operate in the next phase of an archaeological site assessment for identifying the shipwreck.[15] After years of legal squabbles the Michigan Department of Natural Resources issued a permit and on June 16, 2013 an underwater pit was dug allowing US and French archeologists to examine the object for the first time. They discovered a 15-inch slab of blackened wood that might have been a human-fashioned cultural artifact.[16] On June 19, 2013, teams of scientists determined the wood pole discovered was not attached to a ship, after it came loose and was placed on the lake bed during an excavation. They concluded it was likely a bowsprit dating from a ship hundreds of years old, although some think it was a common pound net stake used for fishing nets in the 19th century. At the time, no other wreckage was found, but scientists noted other wreckage may not be far away.[4][5]

On June 23, 2014, Steve Libert told the Associated Press he believes he found "Le Griffon" in Lake Michigan after extensive searching, in a debris field near where a wood slab was found the previous year.[17]

On December 27, 2014 two divers, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick Monroe announced the discovery of a wreck that is almost certainly Le Griffon, based on the ornamental griffin still visible on the bow. [18]

 

[ARC]

Been awaiting confirmation it is LaSalle's ship.

They announced it was confirmed.

 

[releventchair]

Wow! did not get far from the bay then. Hardly got to see lake Michigan on her outbound sail..
While we see high waves,(too high to try and too high to survive in small craft if caught..) and a rare wind powered seiche on occassion; on the great lakes the chop rather than ocean type swells can be brutal and knock a saltwater hull apart.
Darkness or high wind exiting Green Bay could have made it a thread the needle trick. Or they could have turned away from lake back towards bay hoping to avoid it till storm let up? An east wind could have covered some obstacles normally visible too.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/P...2!3m1!1s0x4d4cf791e850b58d:0xf78b9797cb0767fb


http://terrypepper.com/lights/michigan/poverty/poverty.htm