Burnt Ship Bay

Burnt Ship Bay — Was the Burnt Ship the Griffon?

At the northern end of Isle de Grande, an inlet long known as Burnt Ship Bay has carried the same question for more than two centuries: what ship burned here, and why?

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts describe submerged hull remains, charred timbers visible in low water, and early settlers salvaging iron and wood from a wreck buried in silt.[5] The identity of the vessel has never been settled. Some traditions place the destruction during the French retreat of 1759, others during the War of 1812.[6]

Complicating these dates is a documented discovery made in 1888 near the former Clairieux/Luc hut site: French gold and silver coins, including one minted in 1537.[7] The coin’s date predates all commonly proposed explanations for the burned ship, raising the possibility that material associated with much earlier French activity moved through — or remained hidden within — this landscape.

Modern historians agree that Le Griffon was the first full-rigged ship to sail the Great Lakes and that it vanished after departing Green Bay in 1679.[8] Yet La Salle himself later expressed suspicion that the vessel was not lost solely to storm, and that its cargo may have been deliberately taken.[9]

If Le Griffon returned to Niagara — to the place of its construction — and was intentionally destroyed, Burnt Ship Bay offers geography consistent with concealment: shallow channels, shifting sediment, and a shoreline that has changed repeatedly over time.[10]

This site does not claim certainty. It asks whether Burnt Ship Bay preserves not just the remains of a vessel, but the shadow of an unresolved decision.

Footnotes (Burnt Ship Bay)
[5] Dick Burke, “X Marks the Spot… If You’re Lucky,” Buffalo Magazine (1967).
[6] Local Grand Island historical traditions summarized in Burke (1967).
[7] Charles M. Skinner, Myths & Legends of Our Own Land, Vol. II (1896).
[8] Orsamus H. Marshall, The Building and Voyage of the Griffon (1879).
[9] Joe Calnan, “The Pilot of La Salle’s Griffon.”
[10] New York State and local Grand Island shoreline histories.

Sources & References

O. H. Marshall, The Building and Voyage of the Griffon (1879)

Charles M. Skinner, Myths & Legends of Our Own Land, Vol. II (1896)

Dick Burke, “X Marks the Spot… If You’re Lucky,” Buffalo Magazine (1967)

Nineteenth-century Grand Island accounts and regional historical reports