Mark A. Hall: Did Sea Cows Fuel Mermaid Mythology?

Today we have a guest blogger Mark A. Hall* who contributes his thought in “Did sea cows fuel mermaid mythology?”

Perhaps for Christopher Columbus they did. People back to Lt. Fletcher Bassett in 1885 have suggested that what Columbus saw in 1493 “were probably manatee or dugongs.”

The log of Captain John Smith, however, told a more detailed story that doesn’t describe a sirenian. His reported log entry in 1614 in the West Indies gives details not given in the newspaper story.

Smith entered this description of what he first took to be a woman swimming gracefully. She had “large eyes, rather too round, a finely shaped nose (a little too short), well formed ears, rather too long, and her long green hair imparted to her an original character by no means unattractive.” Only below the waist did she resemble a fish and that turned him off. He was not describing a manatee.

If he had seen Esther Williams wearing scuba gear he might have also been turned off. The folklore of mermaids tells that the fishy parts of the mermaid can be removed just like scuba gear. It appears that, when mermaids remove their swimming costumes, they can be not so unattractive all over.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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