Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found in Lake Michigan

A debris field at the bottom of Lake Michigan may be the remains of the long-lost Griffin, a vessel commanded by a 17th century French explorer, said a shipwreck hunter who has sought the wreckage for decades.

Other Great Lakes divers, historians and underwater archaeologists would like the discovery to be true, but say that at this point doubts far outweigh proof.

Steve Libert says his crew found the debris this month about 120 feet from the spot where they removed a wooden slab a year ago that was protruding from the lake bottom.

Libert believes that timber was the bowsprit of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s ship, although scientists who joined the 2013 expedition say the slab more likely was an abandoned fishing net stake.

“This is definitely the Griffin — I’m 99.9 percent sure it is,” Libert said. “This is the real deal.”

He described the bottom land area as littered with wooden planks that could belong to a ship’s bow, along with nails and pegs that would have fastened the hull to the rest of the vessel and what appeared to be sections of a mast.

He acknowledged his dive team had found no “smoking gun” such as a cannon or other artifacts with markings identifying them as belonging to the Griffin.

But the nails and other implements appeared similar to those from La Belle, another of La Salle’s ships that sank near the Gulf of Mexico, Libert said.

“I wish so much for him to have discovered it ... but there’s so little hard information,” said Rick Mixter, a video producer who has visited 150 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes since he began diving in 1991.

“He has nothing to support that it’s the Griffin other than this board, sticking upright from the bottom of the lake for the past 300 years?” said Mixter, 50.

Dean Anderson, Michigan’s state archaeologist, said Monday he hadn’t been notified of the most recent find and could not speculate whether the Griffin had been located. Anderson supports the theory that the timber discovered earlier was a fishing apparatus.

Libert said his organization has sent images of the debris to three French underwater archaeologists who took part in last year’s search, and that he hopes state and federal permits can be obtained to excavate in the area in September.

The French team was led by Michel L’Hour, director of the Department of Underwater Archaeological Research in the French Ministry of Culture and an authority on shipwrecks. L’Hour wrote by email Tuesday that the latest findings were “encouraging” but that more evidence was needed.

“The wooden remains that have been observed could correspond to a wreck,” L’Hour said.

They include tree nails with wedges and square nails that have some similarity with La Belle’s fasteners “and a few other details already observed on wrecks dated in the 17th century,” he said.

But he said the artifacts could be dated as late as the 19th century and that items such as ceramic shards are needed to provide more certainty.

The discovery area strewn with debris is roughly the size of a football field, said Brian Abbott of Nautilus Marine Group, who joined Libert’s search this month and took sonar readings of the bottom lands. It is near tiny Poverty Island in northwestern Lake Michigan and about 50 feet below the water’s surface.

According to Mixter, the Great Lakes is the graveyard of anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 shipwrecks, the vast majority of which have never been found.

“But today’s technology is uncovering shipwrecks at an alarming rate,” Mixter said. “I doubt those newly discovered ships — some of which are entire schooners — are getting the protection that they need. Many of us are nervous that ships might be discovered and then taken apart bit by bit by souvenir hunters.”

Mixter — who has visited a number of well-known wrecks — added the discovered objects need proper care once they are removed from the lake.

“The problem is compounded once the items are taken out of the water, which has preserved them, sometimes for hundreds of years. If they aren’t store properly in preservative solutions, they’ll just fall apart.”

But Mixter is hoping Libert’s find is genuine.

“I have no ill will and wish him the best,” Mixter said. “As soon as he finds the cannons or the figurehead of the Griffin, I will stand up and cheer this great accomplishment.”