TRAVERSE CITY, MI (AP)-- Scientists and divers who combed the bottom of Lake Michigan last week for a 17th-century shipwreck have retrieved a wooden beam that could belong to the long-lost Griffin.
Expedition project manager Ken Vrana tells The Associated Press the team removed the timber Saturday but waited until Wednesday to announce it. The team was completing arrangements for its temporary storage.
He says the group will submit a proposal to the Michigan state archaeologist's office for experts to study the beam in hopes of determining its age and origin. Those would be clues that could help determine if it's the bowsprit of the Griffin, as expedition leader Steve Libert believes.
The Griffin was commanded by the French explorer La Salle. It disappeared in 1679 near the entrance of Green Bay.
