TRAVERSE CITY, MI (AP)-- Members of a team that searched Lake Michigan for a lost 17th-century ship are divided over the likelihood that they've located the resting place of the Griffin.
Shipwreck hunters and scientists retrieved a 20-foot-long wooden beam from the lake bottom near Green Bay last June. They were disappointed to find it wasn't connected to shipwreck debris.
Now, reports obtained by The Associated Press show that some experts with the team believe the timber was simply part of an underwater fish-netting apparatus commonly used a century and more ago.
Mission leader Steve Libert and his allies insist the beam is probably the bowsprit of the Griffin or another vessel. He says he plans to continue searching this summer.
The Griffin and its cargo of furs were last seen in 1679.