EXPEDITION
The Search for the Elusive Griffon
Another Le Griffon Find?
Based on Facts, This One has a High Probability.
Sieur de La Salle
For Griffon seekers and historians, some of the most intriguing evidence from the Libert’s book, Le Griffon and the Huron Islands 1679, is revealing the most sought-after location of the elusive Huron Islands. Historical records place Le Griffon’s demise among these islands. The Liberts also chart a navigational path to Le Griffon’s final moments. They reveal that the wreck found in 2018 is conducive of a colonial-age build. Could this be Le Griffon? Great Lakes Exploration team provides a site analysis that includes exclusive photos of the wreck depicting 17th century French construction attributes.
The wreckage is a three-masted ship. The Liberts divulge the facts that suggest the wreck could indeed be that of Robert La Salle’s fabled Le Griffon.
An Underwater Time Capsule
Le Griffon will be a find of huge historical significance. “The wreck is a time capsule that could fill in the missing gaps of La Salle’s early exploration of North America” says Libert. The fact that Le Griffon was built in the wilderness with virgin timber cut on site as opposed to a shipyard, may reveal the hardships and circumstances La Salle and his men faced. We would be able to learn the tools and technology La Salle’s shipwright Moise Hillaret possessed to construct such a vessel. La Salle inferred that Le Griffon had three masts with several sails. He intended to use Le Griffon as a merchant vessel to finance his search for the mouth of the Mississippi with the proceeds from the lucrative fur trade, as per his Letters of Patent from King Louis XIV.
The Voyage of Le Griffon
Father Louis Hennepin accompanied La Salle on his first expedition to Illinois.
Le Griffon’s maiden voyage started from Niagara on August 7, 1679. La Salle and a crew of thirty-two sailed across Lake Erie to Detroit and then to Michilimackinac, on the Straits of Mackinac. In September, they dropped anchor off the shores of Huron Island in the Baye Des Pauns (Green Bay). Later La Salle dispatched a crew of six to sail Le Griffon, loaded with 6000 pounds of furs, back to Niagara.
Le Griffon sailed out of Washington Harbor on today’s Washington Island, September 18, 1679. Father Hennepin, a Franciscan Recollect friar who had accompanied La Salle on the expedition, records that the ship fired a single cannon shot as it set sail. Hennepin also says that those on the land could not see which way the ship went. Le Griffon then disappeared entirely and was never seen again.
There were plenty of theories of what happened to the flagship. One is that Indians captured the crew, burned the ship and took the furs. There is however little evidence for this. La Salle himself came to believe that his pilot Luc and crew had mutinied, stolen the furs and scuttled the ship. Perhaps the most common assumption is that the ship was lost during a storm that usually frequents the Great Lakes during this time of the year. It is known that there was a tremendous four-day storm the day after Le Griffon left Washington Harbor, September 19th. The ship may well have sunk in that storm.