© Howard Gladstone 2005. SOCAN.  All right reserved.  
Sail On, Griffon (Great Lakes Ghost Ship) MP3 by Howard Gladstone
Song based on the history and legend of the Griffon, 
first ship built on the Upper Great Lakes. 
 www.howardgladstone.com   
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It was in sixteen hundred and seventy-nine, enterprising LaSalle arrived
With provisions, crew and riggings to build a mighty ship
Two leagues above Niagara, where the river joins a straight
Open waters and the winds decide your fate

The Griffon was a powerful ship
Solid oak, cannons of steel
A dreamer’s grand dream become real 

Chorus
Sail on Griffon
Great Lakes ghost ship
Sail on your inland sea
Till wind and waves knock you down
You disappeared without a sound 
You never reached solid ground
No trace of you was ever found

To build a fur trade for the French king, for power glory and golden rings
LaSalle and Griffon’s crew crossed these mighty lakes 
Through Erie sailing west, past Detroit and calm Ste-Claire
To Huron’s mighty swells and pounding airs

The Griffon was a mythical beast
Emblem of New France
Against these lakes she never had a chance 

	Repeat Chorus 

Half eagle and half lion the Griffon was standing proud
Loaded with furs sailing back from Sault Ste. Marie 
Disappeared with no trace, she’s gone where no man can be wise
Sailor’s folly or ambition cut down to size? 

The Griffon keeps sailing 
You can see her still
When a proud man’s vision matches his iron will 

	Repeat Chorus / Partial repeat
	Sail on Griffon
	Great Lakes ghost ship
	Sail on your inland sea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Built by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Le Griffon is considered to have been the first full-sized sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes of North America. The ship was launched in Cayuga Creek as a forty-five ton Barque with five guns. It measured 20 m overall. On its maiden voyage beginning on August 7, 1679, it was sailed across Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan with a crew of 34. On its return trip from Green Bay, Wisconsin, it vanished with all six crew members and a load of furs. A number of sunken old sailing ships have been suggested to be Le Griffon but, except for the ones proven to be other ships, there has been no positive identification. One candidate is a wreck at the western end of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, with another wreck near Escanaba, Michigan, also proposed. The Griffon was the second in a string of thousands of ships that have found their last berth on the bottom of the Great Lakes.

Le Griffon is mistakenly called the first ship to be lost to the Great Lakes. The first ship was another built by La Salle, called the Frontenac, a 10-ton single-decked brigantine or barque. The Frontenac was lost in Lake Ontario, on January 8, 1679

Howard Gladstone note:

For research, I read excerpts of the journals of Father Hennepin who accompanied LaSalle.  Some the stilted phrases in the first verse of my song are quotes of translations of those journals.  I have the Griffon disappearing on a return voyage from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario (and not Green Bay).  That fits better with the discovery of wrecks that might be the Griffon near  Manitoulin Island;  however there is no definitive historical record either way and both theories are current .   HG April 8, 2007.