Le Griffon
Le Griffon 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.
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.
Design
Le Griffons pattern closely followed the prevailing type used by explorers to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. The exact size and construction of Le Griffon is not known. The widely referenced antique woodcutting of Le Griffon shows her with two masts but many researchers believe she was a 45-ton barque with a single mast with several square sails and long with a beam.Hennepin's first account says she was a vessel of about 45 tons; his second says 60 tons. Because his second account has numerous exaggerations and cases where he credits himself for things that La Salle had done, Hennepin's first account is considered more reliable. In any case, Le Griffon was larger than any other vessel on the lakes at the time, and as far as contemporary reports can confirm, the first named vessel.
She had the figure of a griffin mounted on her jib-boom and an eagle flying above.
Some say Le Griffon was named for Count Frontenac whose coat of arms was ornamented with the mythical griffin. Hennepin said she was named to protect her from the fire that threatened her.
Historical context
Le Griffon was the largest fixed-rig sailing vessel on the Great Lakes up to that time. Historian J. B. Mansfield reported that this "excited the deepest emotions of the Indian tribes, then occupying the shores of these inland waters".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".
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.
First ships and preparations
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 long. While some of these were made from a single carved log, most were bark canoes. Bateaux were also common. They were open vessels made of wood measuring up to about 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.
Below Niagara Falls: first ships on Lake Ontario
James Mansfield says that in the fall of 1678, La Salle built a vessel of about 10 tons burden at Fort Frontenac and that this vessel, named Frontenac, was the first real sailing vessel on the Great Lakes; specifically, on Lake Ontario. Many authors since Mansfield have followed suit. There is reason, however, to question his assertion.Justin Windsor notes that Count Frontenac by 1 August 1673, "had already ordered the construction of a vessel on Ontario to be used as an auxiliary force to Fort Frontenac." 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." J. C. Mills quotes a letter from La Salle to the Minister of Marine that says, "The fort at Cataraqui with the aid of a vessel now building, will command Lake Ontario..." While no date is given for the letter, the location of Mill's reference to it suggests that it was sent before 1677, perhaps as early as 1675. Francis Parkman says that by 1677, "four vessels of 25 to 40 tons had been built for the lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence." 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 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. Some of La Salle's associates called this vessel a brigantine; others called it a bark. The accounts agree that this little vessel played a part in the building of Le Griffon.
''Le Griffon''
Expedition to upper Niagara
On 18 November 1678, after just over a month of preparations at Fort Frontenac, La Salle dispatched Captain La Motte and Father Louis Hennepin together with 15 men and supplies in a vessel of 10 tons. Their mission was to begin selecting a site for the construction of Le Griffon and to erect necessary structures for shelter, storage, and defense. Because the wind was strong from the north, they sailed close to the north shore of the lake, putting in for the nights in various bays along the way. Somewhere near present-day Toronto they were frozen in and had to chop their way out of the ice. From there they struck out across the lake toward the mouth of the Niagara River. They arrived late on 5 December, but the weather was rough and they did not want to run the surf and outflow of the river at night, so they stayed a few miles off shore. On 6 December, they landed safely on the east bank of the river at about where Lewiston, New York is today. They attempted to sail further upstream, but the current was too strong. Ice flowing down the river threatened to damage their little brigantine and after a cable was broken, they hauled the vessel ashore and into a small ravine for protection.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. La Salle had instructed Hennepin and La Motte to go into wilderness in knee-deep snow on an embassy to the great village of the Seneca tribe, bringing gifts and promises in order to obtain their good will to build "the big canoe" but many tribal members did not approve. Beginning on Christmas Day, 1678, La Motte and Hennepin together with four of their men, went by snowshoe to a prominent Seneca chief who resided at Tagarondies a village about east of Niagara and about 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.
Meanwhile, La Salle and Henri de Tonti, had departed Fort Frontenac in a second vessel some days after La Motte and Hennepin. This was a "great bark" of about 20 tons burden – although Tonti's journal says this was a 40-ton vessel. 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 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, 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.