Uncovering La Salle's Griffon - A work in progress

Approximately 75 years ago I was sitting in my classroom while our teacher proceeded to teach us about the Louisiana Purchase. Somewhere amongst this lengthy explanation about the Louisiana Purchase, my teacher brought up the correlation between said purchase and it's infamous association that took place 120 some years earlier with explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's and his expeditions.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

Long story short, in 1682, La Salle canoed down the Mississippi River. He named the Mississippi basin La Louisiane in honor of Louis XIV and claimed it for France. And, as well as building forts along the rivers during his expeditions, on April 9, 1682, at the mouth of the Mississippi River near modern Venice, Louisiana, La Salle buried an engraved plate and a cross, claiming the territory for France.

La Salle claiming Louisiana for France

The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane "Sale of Louisiana") was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total cost of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory ($217 million in today's currency).  What a steal!

The rest was history!

More importantly, and as a young lad, I sat there and listened intensely as the teacher went on about La Salle's ship called Le Griffon, which he had built in order to traverse the northern waters previous to his trip down the Mississippi. She then stated that the ship had vanished and was last seen leaving Detroit Harbor on Washington Island.

 

Artist's Interpretation of La Salle's Griffon

This sketch below is of the actual building of the Le Griffon at Cayuga Creek above Niagara Falls and is located in Father Hennepin's Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand Pays situe dans I'Amerique, the edition of 1697 published in Utrecht.

The engraving shows the ship from the starboard quarter tilted to port side. A workman in the foreground is shaping a timber with an adze while in the background "La Forge", the blacksmith , is shown at his forge holding a hot piece of iron over his head to ward off a threatening Seneca.

The Cluster of people beside the ship includes La Salle. He is shown talking to Louis Hennepin. With them is a master shipwright Moise Hillaret. Note the winged lion with the head of an eagle, a griffon or griffon, carved on the ship's transom.

The actual building of the Le Griffon at Cayuga Creek

My ears immediately perked up since as a kid, my family would often take us up to the cabins on Washington Island for vacation. That is when I said to myself, "I'm going to find that ship!". And, this is where my story begins.

There are three common explanations as to what happened with Le Griffon however, I have a most interesting and very logical fourth explanation.

STOPPED HERE - To be continued.............