Relic hunter wants Canada's help in shipwreck case
4/30 - An American relic hunter who believes he's found one of Canada's most important shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Michigan is appealing for Canadian heritage officials to get involved in the U.S. legal battle over the site. The Griffon, which was built near Niagara Falls in 1679 and became the first sailing ship on the Great Lakes, was lost in a storm on its maiden voyage and now ranks among North America's most sought-after wrecks. A federal U.S. appeals court ruled last week that the discoverer of the Griffon's purported resting place - Steve Libert, an underwater explorer from Virginia - does not have to reveal the location to the State of Michigan until another judge sorts out the ownership and future management of the potential heritage treasure. But Libert, who spent decades searching for the lost ship of famed French explorer Rene-Robert de La Salle - a key figure in the history of New France - is now seeking support from Canada to "expedite" a legal resolution and eventually kick-start exploration of the wreck site. "If this is the Griffon," Libert told Canwest News Service, "it will rewrite chapters in the history books - no, it will write new history books. It is time for Canada to get involved."
Robert Grenier, the Canadian government's senior underwater archeologist, acknowledges that the Griffon is "one of the Holy Grails of Canadian marine history," adding that the fact that the ship "was not built in Europe makes it more attractive" to scholars documenting Canada's colonial era. But Grenier cautions that "diagnostic" proof of the wreck's identity has not yet been produced, and that the "quite complicated" legal struggle between Libert, Michigan authorities and U.S. federal heritage officials will have to be resolved before Canada or the French government - which could ultimately claim ownership of the Griffon - get involved. Grenier added that Michigan officials "would like us to do some things" at the purported Griffon wreck site once the legal issues are resolved. But he added that Libert, too, has a legitimate stake in what happens then.
Libert took photographs in 2004 of what he believes is the bowsprit - a stabilizing spar projecting from the front of a ship - belonging to a centuries-old, hand-hewn wooden vessel matching what is known about the Griffon's construction. Experts from the Field Museum in Chicago dated some wood samples from the site to the 17th century. "If it is a ship of that period, then there's a good chance that it could be La Salle's ship," said Grenier. "It's well known that the owner of that vessel came from Montreal. Canada could be an interested party."
But further dives at the site and a planned lake-bottom survey for debris were halted four years ago when the State of Michigan claimed exclusive authority over the wreck. That prompted the long-running court battle with Libert and last week's ruling that a federal "admiralty arrest" should be imposed over the wreck site to continue protecting the submerged artifacts until the ownership dispute is settled.
La Salle, a controversial but towering presence in 17th-century North America, had already helped establish Fort Frontenac (at present-day Kingston, Ont.) and led the European discovery of Niagara Falls before trying to build a fur trade empire on the Upper Great Lakes.
After the Griffon was built near Niagara Falls in the summer of 1679, it was sailed across lakes Erie and Huron and into Green Bay - the 150-kilometre-long inlet on western Lake Michigan. La Salle then turned to overland exploration and sent his flagship back toward Lake Erie, on Sept. 18, 1679, to deliver thousands of furs and other cargo obtained from native traders. The ship was never seen again, and La Salle was the first of many searchers who have failed to turn up traces of the wreck over the centuries.
La Salle went on to fame as the discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi River and founder of Louisiana. But he is infamous as commander of a doomed French expedition to modern-day Texas in 1687, during which he is believed to have become deranged. He was eventually murdered by one of his own crewmen.
Libert, who accused Michigan of "trying to legally steal" the Griffon, has stated in the past that the wreck lies between Escanaba, Mich., and the St. Martin Islands near Wisconsin.
Guided by the journals of Father Louis Hennepin - an adventurous French priest who made drawings of the Griffon and sailed westward with La Salle on the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage - Libert says his breakthrough came when he realized the "Huron islands'' mentioned by Hennepin as the Griffon's probable whereabouts referred to a set of islands in Lake Michigan rather than Lake Huron.
From CanWest News Service
Forget the wood!!! Show me the canons!!!! The Griffon sailded with two brass canons.
Jeff
