Грифон: Загадочный корабль Великих озёр XVII века

17th century French sailing ship

Le Griffon (lə ɡʁifɔ̃, 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 Canada in 1679. Le Griffon was constructed and launched at or near Cayuga Island on the Niagara River and was armed with seven cannons. The exact size and construction of Le Griffon is not known but many researchers believe she was a 45 ton barque. She was the largest sailing vessel on the Great Lakes up to that time. La Salle and Father Louis Hennepin set out on Le Griffons maiden voyage on 7 August 1679 with a crew of 32, sailing across Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan through uncharted waters that only canoes had previously explored. The ship landed on an island in northern Lake Michigan adjacent to Green Bay where the local tribes had gathered with animal pelts to trade with the French. La Salle and company disembarked and on 18 September sent the ship back toward Niagara. On its return trip from the island, it vanished with all six crew members and its load of furs. One consequential result of the effort to build Le Griffin was the discovery of Niagara Falls on the namesake river between lakes Erie and Ontario. While there have been many theories over the years, there is no clear consensus as to the fate or current location of Le Griffon. Le Griffon (ship, 1679)

Le Griffons pattern closely followed the prevailing type used by explorers to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Historian J. B. Mansfield reported that this "excited the deepest emotions of the Indian tribes, then occupying the shores of these inland waters". The sailing of Le Griffin from the temporary outpost just south of Niagara Falls on the upper Niagara River to Green Bay was part of La Salle's 2nd of four expeditions which ended at the mouth of the Illinois River on the Mississippi. His first expedition in 1669 had aborted somewhere south of Lake Ontario. His third expedition in 1682 retraced the second, then traversed the middle and lower Mississippi River to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico. His last expedition in 1684 starting from France explored an area on the Gulf coast in eastern Texas where he perished attempting to establish a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. After Le Griffin, it would be more than 80 years before another sailing ship plied the Great Lakes and enabled the commercial exploitation of the lakes and facilitated settlement of the American west.

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. 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 (11 m) long. While some of these were made from a single carved log ("dugout" 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 (11 m) 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.

James Mansfield He also says that at Fort Frontenac in 1676, La Salle "laid the keels of the vessels which he depended on to frighten the English." H. W. Beckwith says that in September 1678, La Salle "already had three small vessels on Lake Ontario, which he had made use of in a coasting trade with the Indians." None of these sources ascribe a name to any of these vessels. While the journals of Tonti, Hennepin, and LeClercq (participants with La Salle) do mention a little vessel of 10 tons, none of them apply a name to it. La Salle's prime focus in 1678 was building Le Griffon. Arriving at Fort Frontenac in late September, he had neither the time for nor the interest in building a vessel at Fort Frontenac to transport building materials, some of which he had recently obtained in France, to a site above Niagara Falls where he could build his new ship. Beckwith's conclusion was that he chose one of his existing vessels, one of about ten tons burden, for sending the first group of men to Niagara. La Salle's men first had to build their lodging and then guard against the Iroquois who were hostile to this invasion of their ancient homeland. a village about 75 mile (121 km) east of Niagara and about 20 mile (32 km) south of Lake Ontario. They wished to secure a reliable truce lest the natives interfere with their projects. Negotiations with the Senecas were only moderately successful, so when they left the village they still wondered if the natives would permit them to finish their project. They reached Niagara again on 14 January. The vessel carried anchors, chain, guns, cordage, and cable for Le Griffon, as well as supplies and provisions for the anticipated journey. La Salle followed the southern shore of the lake. La Salle decided to visit the Senecas at Tagarondies himself. He put ashore near present day Rochester, New York, and arrived at Tagarondies very shortly after La Motte and Hennepin had left. He was more successful in securing the Indians' tolerance of his proposed "big canoe" and support buildings. With La Salle back aboard their vessel, the company again sailed west until, about 25 mile (40 km) from Niagara, weather checked their progress. There was some disagreement between La Salle and the ship's pilot, and La Salle and Tonti went ahead on foot to Niagara. When they arrived there La Motte and Hennepin had not yet returned. While there La Salle selected a site for building Le Griffon. The site La Salle had selected for building Le Griffon has conclusively been identified as at or near the mouth of Cayuga Creek, at Cayuga Island. After La Salle and Tonti left, the pilot and the rest of the crew were to follow with the supply vessel. On 8 January 1679, the pilot and crew decided to spend the night ashore where they could light a fire and sleep in some warmth. It was a calm night and they believed the vessel was securely moored. When a strong wind suddenly arose, they could not make it back to the ship. The vessel dragged its anchor for about nine miles to the east before grounding and breaking up near present day Thirty Mile Point. When La Salle heard of the loss (through a messenger or one of the natives), he left Niagara and joined in the salvage effort. They recovered the anchors, chain, and most of the materials critical for Le Griffon, but most of the supplies and provisions were lost. They dragged the materials to the mouth of the Niagara, rested and warmed up a few days in an Indian village, then carried the materials single file through the snow to their settlement above the falls.

The keel was laid on 26 January 1679. La Salle offered Hennepin the honor of driving the first spike, but Hennepin deferred to his leader. Having lost needed supplies, La Salle left the building of Le Griffon under Tonti's care, and set out on foot to return to Fort Frontenac. While frozen rivers made traveling easy, finding food was not. He arrived there nearly starved only to find that his detractors had succeeded in stirring up doubt and opposition with his creditors. Addressing his problems long delayed his return to the expedition. After La Salle's departure, Tonti refloated the little brigantine, and attempted to use it for more salvage work at the wreck, but the winter weather prevented success. He then charged La Motte with salvage by use of canoes. 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. Of 22 claims of finding Le Griffin advanced since the 1800s, all but 2 have been definitively dismissed. One candidate was a wreck at the western end of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, known since at least 1873, when a lighthouse was constructed at the western end of the island. Another candidate is a debris field adjacent to Poverty Island at the entrance to Green Bay discovered by private maritime company The Great Lakes Exploration Group In 2018. In 2022, Wayne Lusardi, Michigan state marine archaeologist, stated bluntly, "The Griffon has not been found."

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. In 1887, 4 skeletons were discovered in a depression behind a boulder, and 2 more in another nearby limestone cave. They were wrapped in birchbark, and identified as Natives at that time. By coincidence, 6 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. 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. A 2021 book concludes that Le Griffin was indeed wrecked at Manitoulin Island

The skeletons, and most of the artifacts collected from the 2 caves and the wreck, long stored in the lighthouse, were lost is 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.

In 2001 near Poverty Island, adjacent to Green Bay on Lake Michigan, a 10.5' pole sticking up out of the lakebed was discovered by private marine company Great Lakes Exploration Group. After years of legal squabbles the Michigan Department of Natural Resources issued a permit, and on 16 June 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. On 19 June 2013, teams of archaeologists determined the wood pole whose full kength was 19', was not attached to a ship, and retrieved it from the lake. The archaeologists split, some concluding it was likely a bowsprit dating from a ship hundreds of years old, and others that it was a common pound net stake used for fishing nets in the 19th century. Later radio carbon dating was inconclusive, indicating it could have been fashioned between 1660 and 1950. During excavation of the pole, another nearby area was searched. Sonar showed an object approximately (similar to the dimensions of Le Griffon) located under several feet of sediment, but excavation found nothing further. It was later postulated that a shoal of mussels caused a false sonar reading. In 2018, Great Lakes Exploration group, using satellite and aerial images, located a shipwreck and debris field 3.8 miles from the excavated site. In response to a request to excavate the wreck, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in an email, has dismissed the Liberts' claim, detailing thus: "Our archeologist's review of recently published media images reveals the remains of a shipwreck that features typical late 19th century Great Lakes shipbuilding materials and methodologies, and scantlings that are entirely too large to be a French colonial vessel. The keelson structure with mast steps, paired floors and futtocks, and ceiling timbers all suggest a sailing craft, probably a schooner or schooner barge, that was built and operated during the last half of the 1800s. Additionally, this particular shipwreck is well known, can be clearly seen on aerial imagery internet sites, and has been visited by state authorities." The most recent substantive claim to finding Le Griffon was 27 December 2014, when two divers, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick Monroe, announced the discovery of a wreck that they believed was Le Griffon, based on the bowstem, which to some resembles an ornamental griffin. Their claim was quickly debunked when Michigan authorities dove down on 9 June 2015 after receiving the coordinates to verify its authenticity. Michigan state maritime archaeologist Wayne R. Lusardi presented evidence that the wreck was, in fact, a tugboat due to its 90 feet (27 m) length and presence of a steam boiler.