No Ship Yet: Still Archeologists Grow More Confident At Possible Site Of The Griffin

http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/GriffonQA0619_WEB.mp3

There have been some hiccups for underwater explorers and archaeologists this week in northern Lake Michigan hoping to identify the 17^th Century ship of the famous French Explorer Robert de La Salle. But there’s good reason for optimism that his schooner, The Griffin, has been found buried in the mud in about 50 feet of water off the coast of the U.P.’s Garden Peninsula.

Archeologists say an object recovered from Lake Michigan does appear to be a bowsprit centuries old. But it was not connected to a ship’s hull, as explorers had hoped to find. But they do believe there is a ship’s hull preserved in mud somewhere below.

For more, listen to our interview with IPR’s Peter Payette.