So far as history records the first sailing vessel to spread its wings on the Great Lakes beyond Niagara Falls, was the “Griffin,” built by the Chevalier de la Salle in 1679, near the point where Buffalo now stands.  La Salle had brought to this point French ship-builders and carpenters, together with sailors, to navigate the craft when completed.  It was his purpose to proceed in this vessel to the farthest corners of the Great Lakes, establish trading and trapping stations, and take possession of the country in the name of France.  He was himself conciliatory with the Indians and liked by them, but jealousies among the French themselves, stirred up savage antagonism to him, and his ship narrowly escaped burning while still on the stocks.  In August of 1679, however, she was launched, a brigantine of sixty tons burden, mounting five small cannon and three arquebuses.  Her model is said to have been not unlike that of the caravels in which Columbus made his famous voyage, and copies of which were exhibited at the Columbian Exposition.  Bow and stern were high and almost alike.  Yet in this clumsy craft La Salle voyaged the whole length of Lake Erie, passed through the Detroit River, and St. Clair River and lake; proceeded north to Mackinaw, and thence south in Lake Michigan and into Green Bay.  It was the first time any vessel under sail had entered those waters.  Maps and charts there were none.  The swift rushing waters of the Detroit River flowed smoothly over limestone reefs, which the steamers of to-day pass cautiously, despite the Government channels, cut deep and plainly lighted.  The flats, that broad expanse of marsh permeated by a maze of false channels above Detroit, had to be threaded with no chart or guide.  Yet the “Griffin” made St. Ignace in twenty days from having set sail, a record which is often not equaled by lumber schooners of the present time.  From Green Bay, La Salle sent the vessel back with a cargo of furs that would have made him rich for life, had it ever reached a market.  But the vessel disappeared, and for years nothing was heard of her.  Finally La Salle learned that a half-breed pilot, who had shown signs of treachery on the outward trip, had persuaded the crew to run her ashore in the Detroit River, and themselves to take the valuable cargo.  But the traitors had reckoned without the savage Indians of the neighborhood, who also coveted the furs and pelts.  While the crew were trying to dispose of these the red men set upon them and slew them all.  The “Griffin” never again floated on the lakes.

It is difficult to determine the time when sailing vessels next appeared upon the lakes, but it was certainly not for nearly seventy-five years.  Captain Jonathan Carver reported a French schooner on Lake Superior about 1766, and in 1772 Alexander Harvey built a forty-ton sloop on the same lake, in which he sought the site of a famous copper mine.  But it was long before Lake Superior showed more than an infrequent sail, though on Lake Erie small vessels soon became common.  Even in 1820 the furs of Lake Superior were sent down to Chicago in bateaux.