The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.
Le Griffon (French pronunciation: [l if], The Griffin) was a sailing vessel built by Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle 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 Griffon's 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 Lake Michigan where the local tribes had gathered with animal pelts to trade with the French. La Salle disembarked and on 18 September sent the ship back toward Niagara. On its return trip from the island, said to be located in the mouth of the body of water which is now known as Green Bay, it vanished with all six crew members and its load of furs.
While there have been many theories over the years, there is no clear consensus as to the fate or current location of Le Griffon.
A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts.
Older usages are looser; in addition to the rigorous definition above (attested from 1695), the Oxford English Dictionary has about 1525 definitions of "a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing, swifter and more easily manœuvred than larger ships" and "(loosely) various kinds of foreign sailing and rowing vessels, as the galleon, galliot, etc."Modern American definitions include vessels without the square sails on the main mast.