The first sailing ship on the Great Lakes - Part 1

Old wood cut of the Griffon

For most of its history, New France controlled the lucrative fur trade. Frenchmen penetrated far into the North American wilderness to purchase luxurious furs from the Native Americans. The French purchased the furs with a variety of manufactured items such as iron pots, cloth, mirrors, blankets, guns, brandy and knives that they carried with them.

All the manufactured items and furs were transported in hundreds of birch-bark canoes. The fragile canoes were 35-40 feet in length and capable of carrying about two tons of cargo. Crews of men, known as voyageurs, paddled the canoes and, when necessary, carried the cargo and canoes over dry land when a “portage” was necessary.

A round trip voyage, which began and ended in Montreal, was long, dangerous, time-consuming and physically demanding. The fur trade needed to hire hundreds of young men from the fledgling colony of New France which often created a shortage of labor.

Hiring crews of young, strong men was not difficult. Paddling a canoe, discovering new lands, living with Native Americans, trading for furs and making good money was far more exciting than the drudgery of clearing new farmland and performing the never-ending chores of farming.

In 1678, Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle, the famous French explorer, thought he had a better idea.

La Salle’s business plan might have read like this:

1. Build a large ship to sail the Great Lakes. A sailing ship can travel round the clock in all weather and requires few men to transport a very large cargo.

2. Fill the ship with trade goods. Use the trade goods to purchase large quantities of prime furs cheaply in the wilderness.

3. Sail back to Lake Erie and transship the furs on to Montreal where they can be sold at an huge profit.

In 1678, la Salle led a party of Frenchmen he had hired to a site about six miles above Niagara Falls on the Niagara River. Here, his men were ordered to build a sailing ship of about 45 tons burden. This large schooner would be the first sailing ship to ply the waters of the Great Lakes.

It took most of the winter of 1678-79 to construct the ship. La Salle was absent much of the time as he needed to resolve his private financial affairs. Building a large ship, especially in the wilderness, required the transportation of men, tools and many supplies. . . all of which had to be carried in by canoes. The men would also have built rough-hewn log cabins in which to live and work.

La Salle had borrowed all the money he could to finance his fur trading endeavor and was now overextended. In his absence, he had his second-in-command, Tonty, supervise the ship’s construction.