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