Rachel Federman - Mermania

Explorer Christopher Columbus reported seeing

three mermaids

IN THE OCEAN OFF THE COAST OF WHAT IS NOW THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, IN JANUARY 1493. HE SAID THEY ‘CAME QUITE HIGH OUT OF THE WATER’ BUT WERE ‘NOT AS PRETTY AS THEY ARE DEPICTED,

for somehow in the face they look like men’.

Moonlight,

CASTING AN ALLURING GLOW ON AQUATIC MAMMALS, MAY HAVE HELPED DECEIVE TIRED SEA TRAVELLERS EAGER FOR A GLIMPSE OF ENCHANTMENT.

MOST REPORTED SIGHTINGS OF

mermaids

probably mistook manatees, dugongs,

AND THE NOW-EXTINCT SEA COWS FOR THEIR ENCHANTED COUNTERPARTS. AND AT LEAST ONE CREATIVE EXPLORER (WILLIAM SCORESBY IN 1820) SAW

a mermaid figure in a walrus.

‘Dugong’

COMES FROM A MALAY WORD THAT MEANS

‘lady of the sea’.

The world’s

biggest mermaid

WAS SAID TO BE 610 METRES (2,000 FEET)

long from head to tail.

Are mermaids good or bad?

IN SOME STORIES, MERMAIDS APPEAR AS GENTLE, ROMANTIC FIGURES, ABLE TO

grant wishes, heal, foretell the future,

AND WARN SAILORS AND FISHERMEN OF IMMINENT DANGER.

IN OTHER TALES, MERMAIDS ARE

dangerous.

THEY LURE SHIPS TO CRASH ON THE ROCKS OR USE THEIR SWEET SINGING VOICES AND RAVISHING LOOKS TO

tempt men into their underwater domain

IN ORDER TO DROWN OR CAPTURE THEM.

IN HIS NATURAL HISTORY , WRITTEN IN THE FIRST CENTURY CE

Pliny the Elder

DOCUMENTED SIGHTINGS OF MERMAIDS

riding upon other marine creatures.

‘AND AS FOR THE MERMAIDS CALLED

Nereides,

IT IS NO FABULOUS TALE THAT GOETH OF THEM: FOR LOOKE HOW PAINTERS DRAW THEM, SO THEY ARE INDEED:

only their body is rough and scaled all over,

EVEN IN THOSE PARTS WHERE THEY RESEMBLE A WOMAN.’

Gliding silently in boats made from sealskin,

Inuit whale hunters

MAY HAVE APPEARED TO BE HALF SEA CREATURES.

IN HIS NATURAL HISTORY OF AMBOINA (1727),

Dutch naturalist

FRANÇOIS VALENTIJN MENTIONED

the capture of a ‘monster resembling a siren’.

The combs that

mermaids

HOLD ARE MADE OF FISH BONES.

THE TOP HALF OF A MONKEY SEWN ONTO A FISH TAIL WAS A POPULAR FEATURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SIDESHOWS, DUPING AUDIENCES INTO BELIEVING THEY WERE SEEING THE REMAINS OF A

real mermaid.

IN 1842, P.T. BARNUM DISPLAYED ONE SUCH CREATURE – THE SO-CALLED

Fiji mermaid,

WHICH HE CLAIMED TO HAVE BOUGHT FROM A JAPANESE FISHERMAN – AT HIS AMERICAN MUSEUM IN NEW YORK CITY.

On his second voyage

SEARCHING FOR A NORTHWEST PASSAGE ABOVE RUSSIA, SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

English explorer

Henry Hudson recorded a mermaid sighting on 15 June 1608.

Here are the notes from his log book:

‘THIS MORNING ONE OF OUR COMPANIE LOOKING OVER BOORD SAW A MERMAID … FROM NAVILL UPWARD, HER BACK AND BREASTS WERE LIKE A WOMAN’S (AS THEY SAY THAT SAW HER) HER BODY AS BIG AS ONE OF US; HER SKIN VERY WHITE; AND LONG HAIRE HANGING DOWN BEHINDE, OF COLOUR BLACKE; IN HER GOING DOWNE THEY SAW HER TAYLE, WHICH WAS LIKE THE TAYLE OF A PORPOSSE AND SPECKLED LIKE A MACRELL.’

In 1830 a funeral was held to commemorate a