At the Museum of Surgeons Hall

A dugong, probably the species mentioned. CC image Gejuni.

The Mermaid. -

It was mentioned in all the Journals some time ago, that a Mermaid caught in the Indian Seas, had been brought to this country. The creature so described, and no doubt, one of the species which has given rise to so many fabulous stories, is now in the Museum of Surgeon Hall, London. It is about eight feet in length, and bears a strong resemblance to the common seal. There is also a young female, of the same species, in the same place. They belong to the class of Mammalia; the fins terminate (internally) in structure like the human hand; the breasts of the female are not very prominent, and in suckling the young, not only this appearance, but their situation on the body, must cause the extraordinary phenomenon which has led to popular belief. In other respects, the face is far from looking like [print unreadable].

Dublin Weekly Register, 5th May 1821.

The Surgeons' Hall Museums have been refurbished and look like an excellent place to visit today.

Sutherland

From an article on 'Sutherland', by Joan M. Winter.

Sandwood Bay, Sutherland. CC image by Manico.

The Mermaids.

The burn running down to the sea from the loch [Loch Sandwood] is silted up with sand; beyond the sandbanks lies the bay, about two miles wide, with at one end a great stark rock pointing up like a poplar tree. On the other side Cape Wrath is visible beyond the cliffs. Not a soul is in sight. The waves break endlessly on the sand reef, over many an old wreck. On the cliffs to northward are the apparent remains of two old hut circles.

Numerous stories of mermaids appearing in these parts are inevitable. One such came from Sandy Gunn, a name with suitable "Treasure Island" overtones. On Old Christmas Night, January 5, 1900, Mr. Gunn, who lived at Kinlochbervie, was looking for sheep between Sheigra and Sandwood Loch, when he saw a mermaid at the bottom of a gully. She was clearly marooned by the high tide.

In 1939 a lady staying at the Garbet Hotel in Kinlochbervie, while out fishing on Loch Inchard, saw a mermaid; and on another occasion, when they were rowing just south of Cape Wrath, Mr. John Falconer and two fisherman friends saw a merman of horrible aspect rise straight up out of the sea. They were all terrified and rowed away fast; the two fishermen died soon afterwards.

In the Birmingham Daily Post, 17th March 1961.

Yes these are quite vague stories and evidently much retold. I'll have to try and find Mr Gunn's story (reputedly told to R MacDonald Robertson). I love the north west of Scotland. I wish I'd kept better tabs on where we'd stopped and stayed on our tour of it. Well, I guess we'll just have to go back. Sandwood Bay certainly looks almost as remote as it's possible to be in the UK.

It's quite interesting that in the last story the two fishermen die - it reminds me of stories about the (not as nice as you think they might be) fairies.

Welsh C18th Mermaid

Pen-y-holt and Linney Head. Crown copyright (via Edina Digimap), 1860s map.

A Story of a Mermaid.

The following curious story is related in a lively and agreeable work, entitled "A Tour to Milford Haven in the year 1791," written in a series of letters by a lady of the name of Morgan, and published in London by John Stockdale in the year 1795. Mrs Morgan [seems] to have been a lady of an elegant and cultivated mind, and to have mingled with the best society of Pembrokeshire during her sojourn in what was then almost a terra incognita to an Englishwoman. In her forty third letter, addressed to a lady, and dated Haverfordwest, Sept. 22, Mrs. Morgan says --

"If you delight in the marvellous, I shall now present you with a tale that is truly so; and yet, from the simple and circumstantial manner in which it was told by the person who believed he saw what is here related, one would almost be tempted to think there was some thing more than imagination in it. However, I will make no comments upon the matter, but give it you exactly as I copied it from a paper lent me by a young lady who was educated under the celebrated Mrs. Moore*, and who has acquired a taste for productions of the pen, and likewise for whatever may be deemed curious. [*Hannah More, J.P.P.]

Mr. M-- inquired of the gentleman who took down the relation from the man's own mouth, a physician of the first respectability, what credit might be given to it. He said the man was that integrity of character, and of such simplicity also that it seemed difficult to believe he should be either able or willing to fabricate this wonderful tale. Farther the doctor was silent, and so am I.

"Henry Reynolds, of Pennyhold, in the parish of Castlemartin, in the county of Pembroke, a simple farmer, and esteemed by all who knew him to be a truth-telling man, declares the following most extraordinary story to be an absolute fact, and is willing, in order to satisfy such as will not take his bare word for it, to swear to the truth of the same. He says he went one morning to the cliffs that bound his own lands, and form a bay near Linny Stack.

From the eastern end of the same he saw, as he thought, a person bathing very near the western end, but appearing, from almost the middle up, above water. He, knowing the water to be deep in that place, was much surprised at it, and went along the cliffs, quite to the western end, to see what it was. As he got towards it, it appeared to him like a person sitting in a tub. At last he got within ten or twelve yards of it, and found it then to be a creature much resembling a youth of sixteen or eighteen years of age, with a very white skin, sitting in an erect posture, having from somewhat about the middle of its body quite above the water; and directly under the water there was a large brown substance, on which it seemed to float. The wind being perfectly calm and the water quite clear he could see distinctly when the creature moved, that this substance was part of it.

-- From the bottom there went down a tail much resembling that of a large Conger Eel. Its tail in deep water was straight downwards, but in shallow water it would turn on one side. The tail was continually moving in a circular manner. The form of its body and arms was entirely human, but its arms and hands seemed rather thick and short in proportion to its body. The form of the head and all the features of the face were human also, but the nose rose high between its eyes, was pretty long, and seemed to terminate very sharp. Its head was white like its body, without hair; but from its forehead there arose a brownish substance, of three or four fingers' breadth, which turned up over its head, and went down over its back, and reached quite into the water. This substance did not at all resemble hair, but was thin, compact and flat, not much unlike a ribbon. It did not adhere to the back part of its head, or neck, or back; for the creature lifted it up from its neck, and washed under it.

-- It washed frequently under its arms and about its body; it swam about the bay, and particularly round a little rock which Reynolds was within ten or twelve yards of. He staid about an hour looking at it. It was so near him, that he could perceive its motion through the water was very rapid; and that, when it moved it turned, it put one hand into the water , and moved itself round very quickly. It never dipped under the water all the time he was looking at it. It looked attentively at him and the cliffs, and seemed to take great notice of the birds flying over its head. Its looks were wild and fierce; but it made no noise, nor did it grin, or in any way distort its face. When he left it, it was about a hundred yards from him; and when he returned with some others to look at it, it was gone.

This account was taken down by Doctor George P---, of Prickerston, from the man's own mouth in presence of many people, about the latter end of December, 1782."

The physician who took down the foregoing statement from the mouth of the eyewitness was George Phillips, M.D., of Haverfordwest, a gentleman of high social position. -- Notes and Queries.


Reprinted in the Armagh Guardian, 18th May 1860.

Pen-y-Holt Stack. Image CC David Lewis

I have to say, I do like this a lot. It smacks a lot of a genuine experience because of the nature of some of the things reported ('it seemed to take great notice of the birds flying over its head..'). Also why would you want to make yourself look like a gullible idiot in front of the local Gentlemen of High Social Position? He saw something - you might or might not think it was a bona fide mermaid - but for me this is the best kind of mermaid story. Or should we say merman story.

The Book of the Dun Cow

Mermaid in a C14th Welsh manuscript (not the BotDC I'm afraid). CC image NLW.

A monster of the deep was once caught in the nets of the fishermen of Bangor, if we but credit the Leabhar-na-h-Uidhre [the12th century Book of the Dun Cow], which tells the following wild legend:-

"Eochaidh, from whom Lough Neagh derives its name, was drowned in its eruption, together with all his children except Liban, Conaing, and Curnan. Liban was preserved from the waters of Lough Neagh for a full year in her grinan (palace) under the lake. After this, at her own desire, she was changed into a salmon, and continued to traverse the sea till the time of St. Comgall, of Bangor.

It happened that Comgall despatched Beoan, son of Innli, of Teach-Dabeog, to Rome, on a message to Gregory, to receive orders and rule. When the crew of Beoan's curach were at sea they heard the celebration of angels beneath the boat. Liban (mermaid) thereupon addressed them, and stated that she had been three hundred years under the sea, adding that she would proceed westward and meet Beoan that day twelve-months, at Inbher Ollarba (Larne, but perhaps it should have been Inver Ollair, the mouth of the Six-Mile Water at Lough Neagh), whither the saints of Dalaraidhe, with Comgall, were to resort.

Beoan, on his return, related what had occurred, and at the stated time the nets were set, and she was caught in the nets of Fergus, of Milliuc (Meleeg, in the civil parish of Camlin, Co. Antrim), upon which she was brought to land, and crowds came to witness the sight, amongst whom was the chief of Ui Conaing. The right to her being disputed by Comgall, in whose territory - and Fergus, in whose net - and Beoan, in promise to whom she was taken, they prayed for heavenly decision; and next day two wild oxen came down from Carn-Airend (Carnearny); and on their being yoked to the chariot on which she was placed, they bore her to Teach-Dabeoc, where she was baptised by Comgall, with the name Muirgen - i.e. 'born of the sea' - or Muirgelt - i.e. 'traverser of the sea'."

This (from the Dun Cow, but with added suggestions of placenames) is in 'An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor' by the Rev. James O'Laverty, v2, 1880.

Herefordshire gets on the bandwagon

A mermaid admiring Svalbard at sunrise, by Fridtjof Nansen.

A Mermaid!

At our Guildhall on Monday, a person made his appearance to prefer some complaint against the police, by whom a relative of his, the exhibitor of a mermaid  and a merman in this city during the week, had been taken into custody and detained until he consented to repay half-a-crown to a person who swore that such a piece was given in mistake for a penny for witnessing the interesting exhibition.

The magistrates expressed their willingness to hear any complaint, but observed that the man was guilty of an act of vagrancy and swindling in exhibiting something for a creature which he knew had no real existence.

The complainant, who seemed to believe in the reality of the fabled syren, then left the hall very dissatisfied with the police.

A gentleman present observed that the article, which appeared to be partly formed of wax, was a very clumsy deception.

Hereford Journal, Wednesday 17th May 1837.

It seems that enterprising people were quite happy to make some money out of the mermaid craze, even if their creative efforts weren't very good. Perhaps they hoped mermaid-hunters in the provinces wouldn't be as fussy as those in London.

A half crown and a penny were similar size I think, but surely different colours. Besides, surely you have to be careful what you're handing out (the half crown being worth 30x the penny).

Other exhibited (and lucrative) chimaeras

An Etruscan sculpture of the original Chimera. CC image by Sailko.

The Mermaid.

I need scarcely remind the reader that the preparation lately exhibited under the name of a mermaid is quite fictitious, or rather factitious - a species of fraud which is often practised by knaves upon collectors of curiosities. When I was visiting, some years ago, the fine botanic garden of Mr. Templeton, near Belfast, a boy brought him a very singular looking production, a very pretty daisy and a shamrock growing from the same stem. It was a fraud: but so neatly executed that it was only after several hours' minute examination that we detected the artificial joining of the two plants.

In the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow is a specimen of a beetle got up in this way, for which Dr. Hunter gave no less, if I recollect right, than fifty guineas. It was the body of one species of beetle united to the head of another species, and, as the specimen appeared to be of uncommon beauty and rarity, it was considered of great value. To add to the interests, it was said to have been found floating in the Ganges.

Such seems to be the exhibited preparation called the mermaid, an ingenious union of the head of some monkey to the body of a fish. -- Professor Rennie.

Trinity House in Newcastle. CC image by Andrew Curtis

Newcastle Journal - 23rd June 1832.

I.W.M. informs me that some time ago a relation of his visited the Newcastle Trinity House, and was shown, among other things, a mermaid. The head was human, the expression of the face intelligent, but below the waist the body was fashioned like a fish, with scales and fins. At least, this was the account which was given to I.W.M., who now asks me to say whether it is true or not. As I have never been into this particular Trinity House, I am not in a position to express an opinion on the subject. I confess I did not know that this peculiar class of being had any existence except in popular mythology, although stuffed mermaids have been exhibited since the days of Bartholomew Fair downwards.

 All the world over, however, there are legends about these mysterious creatures. The Ottawas and other American Indians have their man-fish and woman-fish, and the Chinese tell stories not unlike our own about the sea-woman of their Southern seas. We are taught on the most excellent evidence that a mermaid was captured at Bangor, on the shores of the Belfast Lough, in the sixth century, while another caught at Edam in 1403 was carried to Haarlem and kept there for many years.

Perhaps the authorities at the Newcastle Trinity House will unburden themselves of their secret. If they have a mermaid in their possession it is hardly fair to keep the bewitching maiden all to themselves.

Pearson's Weekly, 25th May 1895.

I don't know if Professor Rennie was talking about the mermaid exhibited in London, or a Newcastle mermaid. Anyway it seems appropriate that 60 years later there was a mermaid at Trinity House, as that was / is on the quayside and still provides services for seafarers.

Next to track down Liban, the mermaid from the lough at Belfast.

Sailing advice from a mermaid

The Great Storm of 1703. No artist mentioned for this super engraving.

Superstition of the Sailor.

Sailors have in general a very proper sense of religion, though often strongly tinctured with superstition. They believe in mermaids, ghosts, and goblins; and the story of the devil taking the ship's broker into Mount Stromboli is received by them as a fact. They have a great idea of the transmigration of souls, as far as relates to the Simia tribe, many of whom they believe to be captains of Guineamen in a state of punishment.

I was assured by a north-sea pilot, in conformation of his belief in mermaids, that in the great gale of 1702, when so many colliers were lost on the east coast of England, one of the fleet was saved by the kind interference of a mermaid, who hailed her by name in the following prophetic words: -

"Sea Adventure! Sea Adventure! Clew up all your sails and let go your sheet anchor:" the prudent master took the warning, and saved the ship.

Seamen will never throw a cat overboard; nor whistle, for fear of bringing on a gale - either of these causes having been known to produce the most serious effects. A horse-shoe is almost invariably nailed to the foremast, both in the King's and merchant service, to keep away the witches, of whom the Norway breed are supposed to be by far the most mischievous. -- United Service Gazette.

 In the Worcester Herald, Saturday 4th May 1833.

How do mermaids know about sailing a ship, I wonder? Also this one knew how to read the name of the ship, which was handy.  

If I were to take this allegedly 130 year old tale (at the time) unnecessarily literally, and believe the captain really did hear a voice - perhaps he did hear a voice from inside his head telling him what to do in his state of extreme stress. (Is that replacing one fortean thing with another controversial idea?)

Also I am glad seamen don't throw cats overboard, it seems a mean thing to do.