Original subtitles

It's been called the holy grail of north american shipwrecks.

♪

gates: This map could change the entire search?

Oh, definitely.

Gates: Oh, my god!

They have a submarine.

Looks like we got some debris in the water.

♪

oh! We got something!

What is that? Zoom in on this.

Van heest: That's a straight line.

That could be the beginning of a debris field.

♪

what is that? Wow!

♪

the world's oceans are littered with countless shipwrecks

that have never been found,

but the most famous lost wreck in north american history

isn't missing out at sea.

It's somewhere in the great lakes.

Her name -- the griffon.

♪

the year is 1679,

and famed french explorer robert de la salle

has arrived in the new world with a vision --

to create a massive fur-trading empire

and to discover a westward sea route to asia.

He constructs the griffon.

It is the first true ship to explore the great lakes,

but less than two months after it launches,

it vanishes into thin air...

♪

...Never to be seen again.

But now a historian has discovered long-lost documents

and plans to use cutting-edge technology to crack the case,

and a pair of leading researchers believe

that a forgotten wreck may turn out to be the historic ship.

So, what happened to the griffon,

and where is she now?

I'm diving into the great lakes' greatest mystery.

♪

my name is josh gates...

Look! Ha ha ha!

...Explorer, adventurer...

That is it!

...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

Uh, uhh! Ah, ahh!

With a degree in archaeology and a passion for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends of the earth

investigating the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

my search for the most legendary lost ship of the great lakes

brings me to america's front yard.

Welcome to upstate new york, and I mean way upstate.

I'm only a few thousand feet from the border of canada,

and the only thing standing between me

and our neighbors to the north

is nearly a million gallons of water a second rushing by.

♪

niagara falls -- majesty in motion.

Four of the five great lakes --

nearly one-fifth of the world's freshwater supply --

drain over the falls.

♪

and it's here beneath these surging cascades

that the story of the griffon begins.

So, I'm meeting maritime historian joan forsberg

to get my feet wet.

Joan. Hi, josh.

How you doing? I'm good. Nice to meet you!

I take it we're going for a ride.

Yes, a wet ride.

♪

those of you watching at home may want to grab an umbrella.

♪

if you've never been here,

just picture climbing into a washing machine.

♪

[ laughs ]

♪

unbelievable!

Hoo-hoo, hooo!

♪

come on! [ laughs ]

♪

now, joan, today, this is a huge tourist attraction.

What would this place have been like 300, 400 years ago?

It was pure and wild.

The only people that were here were the seneca indian tribe.

It was their land, but in 1678,

french explorers came right to this spot.

They were led by the legendary la salle.

♪

gates: With a name as big as his dreams,

rene-robert cavelier, sieur de la salle

is a french ex-priest turned explorer.

In the 1670s, america is still very much the new world.

The 13 british colonies have just been established,

and eastern canada and the american midwest

are known as new France.

Giant swaths of the continent have yet to be mapped.

La salle sets out to change that.

His dream is to set up a fur-trading empire

and find the fabled northwest passage,

a hypothetical east-west sailing route above canada to asia.

But here in niagara, he hits a major roadblock.

There was this insurmountable obstacle.

♪

yeah, coming up against this would be pretty imposing.

Yes.

He needed a great ship,

and he knew he was going to have to build it above the falls.

Speaking of "above the falls,"

maybe we should continue this talk there.

[ laughs ] sounds good.

♪

joan and I escape the deluge

and head to high ground above the falls,

only a few miles from where la salle built his ship.

Once the griffon is constructed here above the falls,

where does she sail?

She was the first ship to traverse lake erie,

lake huron, and went into lake michigan.

Wow.

His ship was a trailblazer.

Gates: But it's far from smooth sailing.

♪

between the lakes, the ship has to be manually pulled with ropes

more than 40 miles up the shallow st. Clair river.

The men face brutal storms and hostile encounters with tribes

as they trade furs within their territory.

These furs were effectively gold, right?

I mean, they were worth a lot.

They were.

♪

the griffon sets sail near niagara falls

on August 7, 1679.

After a thousand-mile voyage through lake erie,

lake huron, and lake michigan,

la salle and his crew land at rock island

in what's now green bay, wisconsin,

where they pick up a shipment of furs.

La salle stays behind to explore the head of lake michigan

while his crew sails back to niagara

to sell the furs and return with supplies.

And they sail off into lake michigan,

and where does she go?

♪

we don't know. That's the mystery.

That's the mystery.

♪

it's been called the holy grail of north american shipwrecks.

♪

gates: While it's been suggested that the griffon

could have been attacked by natives

or even sabotaged by mutinous members of the crew...

♪

...Most believe that she wrecked in a storm.

After all, the great lakes are famous

for unpredictable and deadly weather

that could have overwhelmed the ship.

It is the most hunted and the most found shipwreck

in the great lakes and maybe in the world.

Gates: Each of the great lakes is a veritable ships graveyard,

and over the years, countless divers and explorers

have come forward to claim victory

in the hunt for the griffon.

And none of those have panned out?

Well, not quite.

♪

there are two claims still out there

that are really interesting.

Gates: One serious griffon hunter believes the ship sank

in the waters of lake huron...

♪

...While another promising theory

claims she never made it out of lake michigan.

So, if I'm gonna find the griffon...

You have to follow that trail the griffon blazed for you.

All right. I just got to get back across that river.

[ laughs ] thank you so much.

♪

since lake michigan was where la salle's ship was last seen,

that's where I'm starting, too.

My first stop is downriver, in buffalo, new york.

♪

once a shipping powerhouse and factory town...

I'd like to solve, please, pat -- "wonder tread."

[ buzzer ]

[ ding ]

[ ding ]

[ ding ]

[ audience groans ] damn!

...Today, the city is best known for an invention

that's become an american icon.

I'm talking about the mighty buffalo wing.

Mmm.

[ muffled ] history is delicious.

Probably subtitle that.

What that says.

♪

I clean my plate, then check out another buffalo legend --

the site where the griffon was built.

Today, griffon park is a quiet and unassuming place,

but more than three centuries ago, this is where la salle

began construction of the mighty griffon.

It was a project that seemed almost cursed from the start.

♪

la salle and his crew began work in January of 1679...

♪

...Battling wind, snow, and the local seneca tribe,

who were hostile to a foreigner like la salle

exploring their homeland.

By spring, they had miraculously completed construction

of the griffon, but for modern-day explorers

searching for the wreckage, there's just one problem --

nobody can seem to agree on what she looked like.

♪

scant information exists on the griffon's size,

weight, and design.

Some accounts say she was 30 feet long,

with one mast and square sails.

Others say a 60-ton three-masted bark.

Or was she a 40-foot two-master?

Whatever her construction,

it's believed that she carried seven cannons

and that her namesake, the mythical griffon,

was carved on the bowsprit or stern.

♪

it's not much information to go on,

but I'm making the long drive to the last place

where the griffon was seen -- manistique, michigan --

to meet brendon baillod,

founder of the great lakes shipwreck research foundation.

♪

baillod: Hey, josh!

Yes? God?

Up here, josh!

Brendon!

Hey, come on up!

All right, I'm coming up!

Is there an elevator?

♪

it turns out there is not.

♪

[ grunts ]

okay.

I made --

no, there's more stairs. Okay, great.

♪

here we go. Brendon!

Hey, josh. How are you, man?

Good to see you. Good to see you, as well.

A little winded from the walk up.

Unbelievable view. It is.

It's really something.

♪

gates: All right, here's the little bit that I know.

The griffon left what's now green bay, wisconsin,

and she was sailing where?

She was sailing to the straits of mackinac.

They're that direction, almost due east from here.

And, obviously, she never makes it there.

That's right.

♪

there's a very detailed historical account

from la salle himself.

He wrote a letter exactly a year

after the griffon was lost in the fall of 1680,

basically giving the excuse to his creditors

about why he failed on his first expedition.

♪

in this rarely seen letter, la salle states that the ship

was on its way from what's now green bay

to its first way point, in st. Ignace, michigan,

when it was forced to shelter from a storm.

"some indians called potawatomis who had anchored with them

on the northern coast tell me

that two days after the vessel left the island,

this storm arose."

♪

there's only one place where ships can shelter

between green bay and st. Ignace safely,

and it's right here.

This? This bay right here?

Yes. And it's called seul choix.

And this is the seul choix lighthouse.

That's right. Do you know what that means?

My french is a little rusty, to put it mildly.

What does it mean? It means "only choice."

♪

now I see why you wanted to meet here.

We're on the north end of the lake.

We're in a protected area.

We're literally standing on the only choice,

the only safe harbor for that ship.

That's right.

Gates: But where did the griffon go next?

Brendon's study of la salle's letters

may reveal an answer to that question, too.

"the pilot, believing the wind to be favorable,

set sail, contrary to their advice.

The wind increased very much, and after that,

the bark could not keep a straight course

but drove obliquely towards some islands

in the offing called the huron islands."

doesn't that put us in lake huron?

Aren't those the islands of lake huron and not michigan?

First of all, there are no islands called the huron islands

in lake huron and never were.

Gates: In fact, on contemporary maps,

you won't find the huron islands anywhere the griffon sailed.

This map is from 1690.

It was drawn here in the new world.

It was not drawn with secondhand information in paris.

This is lac du michigane. This is michigan lake?

This is lake michigan, this is lake huron,

and if you look up here

at the top of lake michigan, you're gonna see the islands

right out there -- the beaver islands,

but on this map, they're called des iles huronnes.

♪

hot damn. Look at that. The huron islands.

Just like in la salle's account.

That's incredible.

This map could change the entire search.

Oh, definitely.

♪

♪

gates: I'm on the hunt

for the holy grail of american shipwrecks --

the griffon, legendary explorer robert de la salle's vessel,

missing for nearly 400 years.

Now maritime historian brendon baillod

believes he's zeroed in on the ship's location.

On this map, they're called des iles huronnes,

just like in la salle's account.

Hot damn. Look at that. The huron islands.

That's incredible.

This map could change the entire search.

Oh, definitely.

Gates: According to la salle's report,

the griffon struggled in a storm,

taking on water as it made its way toward the huron islands,

now known as the beaver islands, before it disappeared forever.

This area seems to fit perfectly with la salle's own writing.

So, what have you done about it?

I've been searching for the griffon up here,

and we've established a search grid for the wreck.

It's about a hundred square miles.

Brendon's search grid covers the waters

between the area of the lighthouse

and the beaver islands.

Between these boundaries,

he's using historical records and data on water currents

to hone in on the most likely search zone.

And how much of this grid would you say you've searched?

We've only searched about 10% of this grid.

And has anything promising come up so far?

We have one that looks really promising,

and we're pretty excited about it.

It looks a lot like a ship.

Really? Yes.

And have you been down to it yet?

No, we haven't.

But I've got the sonar image.

Whatever it is, it doesn't look natural.

That could be a ship.

You want to go find out?

Hell yeah, I do.

♪

the next morning, we head to the docks

to meet up with brendon's search team.

Morning. Morning.

How are you? Oh, good.

How about yourself? Really well, thanks.

Josh, this is my friend greg busch.

He's an oceanographer. Gates: Terrific.

And I take it this is what we're going out in?

Yeah, what we're taking in.

Then we got a little extra something here.

Okay.

Okay, boys, bring it in.

♪

our target is more than a hundred feet deep.

Scuba divers can spend very little time at that depth,

and that's why greg brought something

that can handle the strain...

♪

...Otherwise known as pc-1201.

Oh, my god!

They have a submarine.

♪

and it's even painted the right color.

Literally, a yellow submarine.

This state-of-the-art three-person sub

has five thrusters,

underwater-to-surface communications, sonar,

and is rated to descend down to a thousand feet.

I mean, all my dreams have come true now.

♪

so, I've got the coordinates here, greg.

Wreck's in about a hundred feet of water.

About how far out are those coordinates?

It's about 7.8 miles.

♪

aboard the somerset, we tow the sub to the beaver islands

and brendon's sonar target.

♪

we're coming up on the target pretty quickly here.

There seems to be a fair amount of current.

Where you'd need to board the submersible quickly

and now submerge.

The waters of lake michigan can be dangerous

on the surface and below.

With strong currents and high winds in the forecast,

it's imperative that we complete our mission

before the weather turns.

♪

how many people can fit in the submersible?

Three. Three. So, it'll be who?

Me, you, and the camera.

I'll be monitoring up here from the surface

while you guys go down.

♪

here we go.

♪

okay. A little tight.

Oh!

♪

we squeeze in and stand by for the descent.

♪

fortunately, I came prepared.

The ocean is filled with many mysteries.

Greg, there is a bathroom in this, right?

Busch: [ laughs ]

just anywhere?

♪

okay, we're gonna descend.

♪

roger that. Keep in touch.

♪

okay, we are headed down.

♪

okay, passing 20 feet.

♪

gates: Because of the strong current, the sub drifts as we drop down.

Okay, we are passing 50 feet.

♪

looks like 75 feet or so.

♪

I see it. We're coming up on it.

♪

contact. We're down.

♪

we've just touched down, and we're at about 95 feet.

Roger that. I'll wait to hear from you.

Spooky down here -- like a moonscape.

♪

we're not sure how far we've moved off the target,

and these lakes can be a treacherous place to work.

Visibility here could be anywhere from crystal-clear

to pea soup.

And a cold current is pulling us to even deeper waters.

Are you seeing anything on the bottom?

Gates: Nothing, man. It's really desolate.

Just soft sand, a little bit of algae,

but nothing else so far -- not even a rock.

♪

okay, we're underway here.

Visibility is probably only about five or six feet.

Let's try to shine a little light on things.

♪

we are scanning the bottom.

Fortunately, the sub is equipped

with a state-of-the-art sonar system,

so we survey the area to try to rediscover the anomaly

brendon picked up on the surface scans.

♪

anything on the sonar, greg?

No, I'm not really seeing anything there, either.

[ beeping ]

greg, that terrifying-sounding alarm is nothing?

[ beeping continues ]

at what point do you pass out from that?

.5 is the danger level, and we're only at 0.39.

[ beeping continues ]

oh, good.

Copy that.

Brendon, we have a co2 alarm going off in here.

Every time we breathe out, we emit carbon dioxide,

poisoning the air around us.

♪

the co2 scrubber absorbs this noxious gas.

But right now it's got some serious catching up to do.

The clock is ticking.

We think maybe the pellets in that co2 chamber

are packed in too tight.

So we got a tenth of a percent

before folks start blacking out in here.

[ high-pitched tone rings ]

♪

♪

gates: I'm with submarine captain greg busch,

searching for the wreck of the griffon,

the fabled lost ship of explorer robert de la salle.

We're plumbing the depths of lake michigan

near the beaver islands,

where it reportedly sank in a storm.

[ beeping ]

brendon, we have a co2 alarm going off in here.

But the sub's carbon dioxide scrubbers are malfunctioning,

and it's getting harder and harder to breathe.

So, we got a tenth of a percent

before folks start blacking out in here.

[ high-pitched tone rings ]

you doing okay air-wise? Busch: Yeah.

If you get lightheaded or anything, let me know.

[ high-pitched beeping ]

okay, co2 levels are coming down now.

♪

.3.

♪

.28.

♪

looks like the scrubber's back online. We're good.

Pfffft!

Glad to hear.

Okay.

Well, that was fun, greg.

[ chuckles ]

♪

gates: I can finally exhale.

We continue our sonar scan for the wreckage

that might be la salle's legendary lost ship the griffon.

Might be something up ahead.

Greg, you see that? Yep.

Think that's our target, yeah? That's it.

I think we might have our target.

♪

we should be almost on top of it now.

Still nothing.

Damn thing's a ghost.

Oops. I just saw something go by there.

♪

oh! We got wood.

Brendon, we've got some debris in the water.

Looks like we got a piece of wood down here.

♪

can we come around? Sure.

It's partially covered in the sand.

We're just passing over it.

We're gonna see if there's anything else to it.

♪

definitely not a piece of driftwood.

This looks like it was something that was milled.

This could be a piece of planking.

Trying to turn around here a little bit

to see if there's more of a debris field.

Stand by.

♪

oh! We got something!

♪

what are you seeing?

Just coming around to it. Stand by.

♪

ha ha!

There's rows of planking,

and it looks like there's some ribs sticking up.

♪

this is a wreck, man.

We've got a wreck down here -- confirmed.

♪

gates: But the million-dollar question is,

did we just find the ghost ship of the great lakes?

Is this actually the wreckage of the griffon?

Does the ship look like it's intact?

It's broken up pretty bad.

There's just bits and pieces of it down here.

I can see what looks like 20 or 30 feet of wreckage.

It looks like part of the bottom of the hull.

It's definitely very old.

It's a wooden vessel. This is not a modern ship.

Do you have any idea how big they are?

They're not enormous.

I mean, they're maybe 12, 18 inches across.

...To see if anything's holding them there?

♪

I see what looks like a bolt headed through there,

fastening that frame on.

It looks like it might be a threaded bolt.

Gates: While nails and other metal fittings

were likely used in its construction,

most experts believe

that the griffon was primarily held together

with large wooden pegs known as treenails.

These threaded bolts suggest that we found a different ship.

...But definitely not the griffon.

♪

gates: Our efforts leave brendon

with a fascinating new wreck to research --

another historic find to add to the log

of previously-lost vessels in the great lakes.

Not a bad day at the office, brendon.

Hey, greg. Nice work, man.

Oh, thank you. [ laughs ]

♪

okay, let's head to the surface. It is cramped down here.

Let's go stretch our legs.

Brendon vows to continue searching the area

around the beaver islands, where he's convinced

la salle's ship will one day be found.

♪

but there are other griffon hunters out there who believe

that the vessel survived the storm in lake michigan

and sailed all the way into lake huron.

♪

do you remember joan from back in niagara falls?

Well, she's a maritime historian,

and so is her husband,

and that's who I'm going to meet.

He believes that wreckage of the legendary vessel

may already have been found.

♪

I leave manistique and drive across michigan and into canada,

where I board a ferry to manitoulin island...

[ ship horn blows ]

...And get a small taste of the conditions

the crew of the griffon might have faced.

[ wind gusting ]

welcome to the beautiful waters of lake huron!

♪

it's so peaceful!

♪

♪

I reach dry land in one piece

and meet with cris kohl and valerie van heest

at the william purvis maritime museum.

Gates: So, I see a lot of shipwreck stuff.

How many other ships besides the griffon

are unidentified out there?

Anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000, at least.

4,000 to 5,000?

These are dangerous bodies of water.

Wow.

Gates: The great lakes were the aquatic highways

of the north american frontier,

but these shipping routes were extremely hazardous.

The sheer size of the lakes allows massive waves to build

and even creates its own weather systems.

Storms come fast and hard.

The largest storm victim was the 729-foot edmund fitzgerald.

♪

with so many ships littering the bottom,

there have been countless cases of mistaken identity,

but there is one wreck that cris thinks could be the holy grail.

You think there's one potential identity of the griffon

that might hold up?

Yes. In fact, it's right here.

♪

this is wreckage that washed up

on the rocky western shoreline of this island.

A lot of photographs were taken of it.

A lot of documentation was made -- drawings and so on.

And these artifacts here are from that wreck, as well?

Yes.

And so if this is the griffon,

how do you think this ship ended up on this beach?

I believe that ship was

blown through the straits of mackinac

and being driven onto the rocks at a dangerous place

called magnetic reef.

Magnetic reef sounds like a place that a ship would wreck.

Supposedly, the ship's compasses went awry

when they got there because of some iron magnetic anomaly.

♪

gates: In 1679, when the griffon set sail,

this reef likely wasn't marked on any map,

making it deadly to passing ships.

[ thunder rumbles ]

what evidence do we have,

other than some timbers on a beach,

that this could be the griffon?

Well, some pieces of the wreckage

were sent to the scientific lab at the louvre in paris.

The results came back that those items

were definitely made prior to 1725

because they contained such high amounts of phosphorus.

That's compelling.

Well, that's not all.

♪

in the 1890s, the lighthouse keeper,

pretty close to where that wreckage lay,

stumbled upon a cave in which there were three skeletons,

a silver chain, silver watch case,

and several french coins from the 1600s.

And not too long after that,

the lighthouse keeper found three more skeletons,

and that brings the total number of skeletons to six.

Which is the total number of people on the griffon.

Right.

♪

okay, now we're talking.

We've got six bodies, we've got french artifacts,

we've got wreckage from the right time period.

Why isn't this an open-and-shut case, then?

Well, the trouble with that is nothing remains today

as primary evidence of those discoveries.

The skeletons, the artifacts?

It's all now hearsay.

The wreckage that was onshore was swept away in 1940.

The lighthouse burned.

The skeletons were lost.

That is a problem.

♪

gates: What little survived is here in this museum,

and while these artifacts may have come from a ship

of the same time period, there's nothing

that conclusively ties them to the griffon.

So, what would it take to prove this is the griffon?

Something indisputable, such as finding one of the cannons

that was known to have been on board.

If we could find some left-behind artifacts,

that could be the proof.

Well, let's go find it.

♪

♪

gates: I'm in search of the legendary griffon,

the lost ship of famed explorer robert de la salle.

Griffon hunters cris kohl and valerie van heest

believe that wreckage from the griffon

may have washed up on the shore of manitoulin island in canada

centuries ago.

But there's a hitch --

all the evidence has vanished.

It's gone?

The wreckage that was onshore was swept away in 1940.

The lighthouse burned.

The skeletons were lost.

That is a problem.

♪

so, what would it take to prove this is the griffon?

Something indisputable, such as finding one of the cannons

that was known to have been on board.

If we could find some left-behind artifacts,

that could be the proof.

Well, let's go find it.

[ thunder crashing ]

gates: When the ship believed to be the griffon

sunk after hitting magnetic reef,

only part of the hull and keel washed up onshore.

Cris and valerie believe

proof that the missing wreckage was, in fact, the griffon

could still be laying on the lake bed

at the foot of the reef.

♪

so we head to the nearby docks on manitoulin's west coast,

where I see some familiar faces.

Josh, I believe you know these guys.

Sure do. Dave, what's up, man?

Hi, josh. Good to see you.

Tom, how are you? How are you?

So, the last time I saw these two guys,

we were looking for dorothy's lost ruby slippers

from "the wizard of oz." crossmon: Yes, yeah.

And I was having hot coffee poured onto my face

to prevent my regulator from freezing up.

So it's terrible to see you both.

I have nightmares still. [ laughter ]

gates: Tom and dave are masters

of the latest and greatest underwater survey technology.

I take it you guys have brought some cool toys.

We have. We have the marine sonic side scan sonar.

It'll give us a near-photo image of the bottom.

Then we'll grab our remotely-operated vehicle

and look at it live on the video.

Gates: The r.O.V. Will give our topside team eyes on the bottom,

allowing us to cover more ground.

Well, shall we rock 'n' roll? Let's do it.

Let's do it. Come on. Here we go.

♪

you think of a lake,

you think of glassy water, something contained.

I mean, this is like looking out into the ocean.

Van heest: Well, there's a reason the griffon's down there.

The water in the great lakes

can get more treacherous than any area in the ocean,

and this boat is about half the size of the griffon.

That's encouraging. That's...

Way to put it in perspective, val.

♪

gates: We reach the strait, and our little boat

struggles in the choppy water.

In stormy weather, it's entirely possible

that the griffon could have been driven into a well-hidden reef.

Okay. Josh, we've arrived.

That's magnetic reef right ahead of us.

That is something a ship could hit, right there.

♪

gates: To protect ourselves from the dangerous rocks

hidden below that whitecap,

we keep our distance from the reef

as dave deploys our side scanning sonar.

♪

it's got fins, and so it just points like a torpedo

and will follow right behind us.

Okay. Tow, baby, tow. Let's go.

♪

we begin circling the reef.

We call it mowing the lawn, 'cause you go back and forth

through your search area.

The sonar unit sends out pulses of sound waves called pings

and then listens for the echo to measure distance

and to build a picture of whatever lies in the depths.

So, basically, the boat here is the center line,

and this is the water column here.

This is the bottom. Yep.

So far, this looks pretty featureless.

Typically, what's the bottom profile here?

Mostly sandy bottom with the occasional log or rock.

What we're looking for is any anomaly,

maybe with straight lines,

which would suggest height off the bottom.

Nature does not make straight lines very well.

♪

okay, we got together a target there.

Zoom in on this.

What is this?

♪

that's a straight line. And there's shadow.

There's some height there.

That could be man-made, yes?

Possibly. It's straight enough.

Yeah, doesn't look natural. Doesn't look like a rock.

We're right on the edge of the reef.

That could be the beginning of a debris field.

Absolutely.

Want to get wet? Let's do it.

♪

♪

r.O.V. Is in the water.

Gates: The r.O.V. Will give cris eyes on what we're seeing --

and on what we can't.

We are seeing you on the r.O.V.

♪

can you see anything?

Gates: We search for the sonar target,

but the choppy waters have stirred up silt from the bottom,

and visibility is just a few feet.

♪

♪

wonderful-looking timbers.

♪

what is that? Wow!

♪

♪

♪

okay, here we go -- headed to canada.

Gates: Moving a film crew and equipment across international borders

can be a total nightmare.

Your fate is in the hands

of whoever is manning the checkpoint.

Hi, there, officer.

Yep.

Here you go.

We have a lot of equipment. We're a film crew.

We're going to manitoulin island.

I am searching for the legendary remains

of a famous french shipwreck called the griffon.

♪

you don't happen to know where it is, do you?

[ laughs ] all right.

That would have made things really easy. [ laughs ]

thank you very much.

Have a great day.

♪

canadians are so nice.

♪

gates: I'm on a quest to find

the holy grail of american shipwrecks --

the griffon, the legendary lost vessel

of explorer robert de la salle.

Historians cris kohl and valerie van heest

are convinced that it sank just off the coast

of manitoulin island in canada

after hitting treacherous magnetic reef.

♪

what is that? Wow!

♪

♪

it's roughly the right size to be the griffon,

but we still don't have our smoking gun.

♪

♪

♪

this vessel is massive -- more than a hundred feet.

So large, it can't possibly be part of the same wreck.

♪

♪

it's a truly puzzling find.

Valerie and I finish surveying the wreckage,

then head topside to decipher what we've seen.

♪

oh! Incredible!

Not one shipwreck, but two!

One seemed to be a schooner. Uh-huh.

And the other, with the machinery,

might have been a steamship.

Once I saw the machinery on the second ship, it was over.

Definitely not old enough to be the griffon.

It has the characteristics of the mid- to late-1800s.

Wow!

So, what do you think, cris?

Well, we know there were at least four wrecks

here at magnetic reef in the late 1800s, early 1900s.

But those ships have not been

officially identified out here?

No, they haven't.

Wow. New discovery, josh.

New discovery. Really cool.

Awesome. Great work.

Hey. Nice work, man.

Kohl: Great work, yeah. That was great.

Well, two more shipwrecks down and about 6,000 to go.

[ laughs ]

gates: With the sun setting, we head back to shore...

♪

...To pore over maritime archives

and investigate the mystery wrecks.

What we discover is nothing short of historic.

On November 10, 1890,

the steam barge bruno was towing the schooner louisa

when they struck a reef and sank.

Miraculously, the crew survived, but the vessels were lost --

until today.

♪

thanks to the efforts of folks like cris and valerie,

we're filling in the blank pages of maritime history --

the story of two missing ships

emerging from the depths after more than a century.

♪

after traversing the great lakes,

from majestic niagara falls

to the depths of lake michigan to remote manitoulin island,

I can't help but be awed

by the daring mission la salle undertook...

♪

...A true expedition

into the then-unknown american wilderness.

♪

to this day, the legend of the griffon

fuels historic finds beneath the waters of the great lakes.

And while she never reached her destination,

she continues to sail on

to the far shores of the imagination,

the place where the greatest stories live forever.

♪