Morecambe Mermaid

Morecambe Bay at low tide. Photo by Eiffel.

Are there really mermaids? Shakespeare has said that there are more things in earth and heaven than our philosophy has dreamed of. Rumours have reached us that a mermaid has actually been seen at a certain spot lower down the coast. If a mermaid has really been seen, then Shakespeare was right.

Now, if a mermaid were to come swimming into Morecambe Bay and start combing her tresses within sight of the promenade, there would be some possibility of finding out whether it was really a mermaid. This mermaid, who is said to have been seen, is apparently a coy wench, and she shirks the popular places on the coast, seeming to prefer to choose a spot on the long lonely stretches of sand, where she can bask in the sunshine, uninterrupted by curious holiday makers.

Still, despite her desire for seclusion, the story is told of how a young man and a young woman walking along the sands one morning saw a mermaid sitting on a boulder near the edge of the tide. The shimmering sheen of her tail and her long flowing hair attracted attention, and they eagerly went closer. The mermaid, however, saw them approaching and, so it is said, darted into the water and made off. A polite young mermaid she is, however, supposed to be, because when she got some way out, she waved her tail as a good-bye signal.

The young man and woman went back to the village where they were staying and started talking about what they had seen. Everbody, of course, thought they were "pitching a yarn," but a few days later a young fisherman came in with a story that he had seen the mermaid, but when he gave chase she swam so fast that he could not catch up with her. A local journalist heard about these stories and interviewed the young couple and the fisherman. As he was making his way to the telegraph office to send off the story of the discovery to his newspaper, the Chairman of the Parish Council met him and said, "I say, are you going to send that story of the mermaid away?"
"I was," said the reported.
"Look her, young man," said the chairman, "don't you do it. It's probably all bosh, but just imagine what will happen if you send away the news that a mermaid has been found here. The place will be absoluted raided by sightseers and you know quite well that there are not enough hotels or houses in the village to put the people up if they come. It will simply mean chaos, and if the mermaid is really about, the confusion will frighten her away."
"There is a lot in what you say," agreed the reporter.

"Look here, then; I've often done you a good turn in the past, do me one now. Send your story about the mermaid being seen but don't say where it is. Explain to your Editors that the Parish Council ask for the name of the place to be suppressed so as to avoid the place being overwhelmed with curious sight-seers. For our part, the Parish Council will do all that is possible to catch the mermaid, if there is one, and you shall be the first to interview her."

Realising that the chairman was quite correct that the village would be worst than Morecambe on a Bank Holiday if the name of the place got out, the reporter agreed. Probably the bait of the first interview with the mermaid if she was caught decided him. Knowing this correspondent, we are inclined to think there may be something in the story, and we hope that the Parish Council, or soemone else, will catch her. Oh, if only she had come, or would come to Morecambe. We should not worry about the crowds.

Morecambe Guardian, 18th July 1930.

Standing up for reason

An illustration from 1817, held by the Wellcome Trust.

To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.

Sir. -- The credulity of the good people of England has often been noticed and commented on, and many a fine fortune has been realized thereby in the hands of the acute natives of France and Italy, &c. yea, the heavy tobacco-headed German, has not failed in the business. While the facility with which the native rogues have managed to impose on their unsuspecting countrymen has been proved in but too many instances. All of these considerations seem to have incited brother Jonathan to try his hand at imposing on brother John, by getting up a monstrous composition under the name and form of a Mermaid forsooth, and impiously and impudently to attribute the abominable forgery to the Divine Being, as his handy work.

In order that you may be aware of the grounds on which I make the foregoing assertions, I have to inform you that the composition was brought from Japan (where I believe it to have been manufactured for the purpose of levying contributions from off the ignorant and unsuspecting). The lower part is a real fish (of a species found in the rivers of China and Japan) the head and shoulders being cut off and replaced by a skeleton, artificially composed, and covered with the muscles, arms, and skin, stripped from off the bust of an old Japanese woman, all which being tolerably well put together, and afterwards smoke-dried, became the "Wonderful Mermaid" now exhibiting in London.

I handled, and minutely inspected the creature, on its arrival at Batavia from Japan, and on that inspection formed my opinion as expressed above. Many blunders have been committed in the  making up of the fabric, too numerous to be here distinctly detailed, nor is it necessary, as it will be readily perceived by any anatomist if opportunity be afforted for the purpose.

I therefore assert that the thing is a composition, and if that be denied, do challenge the proprietor to submit it to be dissected  by a person or persons appointed by the Royal College of Surgeons; and if it he then found to be a real production of natuer, I will then come forward and reimburse the loss, if any, which a Jury may pronounce him to have incurred thereby..
I am, yours obediently,
"SAWNEY."

 Liverpool Mercury, 8th November 1822.

The muscles etc. of an old Japanese woman - that's a bit grim. I'd like to think not though.

Exhibition in Cape Town

The Feejee Mermaid in Boston Museum (1857) - the same creature?

The numerous relations of mariners with respect to the existence of the Mermaid have generally been deemed fabulous, but the following description of an animal of this species, comes in a shape so plausible, that there appears every probability that the narratives of sailors ont he subject of this striking resemblance of the human species, have been founded on fact:-

Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Philip, representative of the London Missionary Society, at Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, dated April 28, 1822:--
"I have today seen a mermaid, now exhibiting in this town. I have always treated the existence of this creature as fabulous; but my scepticism is now removed. As it is probable no description of this extraordinary creature has yet reached England, the following particulars respecting it may gratify your curiosity and amuse you: - The head is almost the size of that of a baboon. It is thinly covered with black hair, hanging down, and not inclined to frizzle. On the upper lip and on the chin there are a few hairs, resembling those upon the head. The ossa mallarum, or cheek bones, are prominent. The forehead is low, but, except in this particular, the features are much better proportioned, and bear a more decided resemblance to the human countenance than those of any of the baboon tribes. The head is turned back and the countenance has an expression of terror, which gives it an appearance of a caricature of the human face; but I am disposed to think that both these circumstances are accidental, and have arisen from the manner in which the creature met its death. It bears the appearance of having died in great agony. The ears, nose, lips, chin, breasts, nipples, fingers, and nails, resemble those of a human figure. The spinous processes of the vertebrae are very prominent, and apparently arranged as in the human body. From the position of the arms, and the manner in which theya re placed, and from such an examination as could be made in the circumstances in which I was placed at the time I saw it, I can have no doubt that it has clavicles; an appendage belonging to the human subject, which baboons are without.

The appearance of the teeth afford sufficient evidence that it is full grown: the incisores, being worn on the upper surface. There are eight incisores, four canine, and eight molares. The canine teeth resemble those of a full-grown dog; all the others resemble those of a human subject. The length of the animal is three feet; but not having been well preserved it has shrunk considerably, and must have been both longer and thicker when alive than it is now. Its resemblance to the human species ceases immediately under the mammae.

On the line of separation, and directly under the breast, are two fins. From the point where the human figure ceases, which is about twelve inches below the vertex of the head it resembles a large fish of the salmon species. It is covered with scales all over; on the lower parts of the animal, the scales resemble those of a fish; but on that part of the animal that resembles the human form, they are much less, and scarcely perceptible, except on a near inspection.

On the lower part of the body it has six fins, one dorsal, two ventrical, two pectoral, and the tail. The pectoral fins are very remarkable; they are horizontal, and evidently formed as an apparatus to support the creature when in an erect posture, like that in which it has sometimes represented combing its hair. --The figure of the tail is exactly that which is given in the usual representation of the Mermaid.

The proprietor of this extraordinary animal is Captain Eades, of Boston, in the United States of America. Since writing the above description he has called upon me, and I have learned from him the following particulars: - It was caught some where on the North of China, by a fisherman, who sold it for a trife; after which it was brought to Batavia. Here it was purchased by Captain Eades for 5,000 Spanish dollars, and he has since been offered 10,000 Spanish dollars for it, but refuses to part with it for that sum. Captain Eades is a passenger on board the American ship Lion, now in Table Bay; he leaves this port in about a fortnight, and the Lion visits the Thames on her passage to America, so that it will, probably, be soon exhibited in London."

In the Kentish Weekly Post, 23rd July 1822.
Is this just a long advert? It'd certainly have piqued my interest. I'd be hoping to go and see it when it arrived.

Mermaid abduction

The cover of Yevgeny Zamyatin's A Provincial Tale

A Novel Case of Abduction.

A thief, by some means, got access to the Mermaid, at Mr. Lefevre's exhibition, on the Parade, and whilst Mr. L. was delivering a Lecture on the properties of glass, succeeded in carrying her off; but was detected in passing down stairs, and the fair prize was restored to her home. It is doubted whether the delinquent may not be brought before a very high Tribunal for this offence, as the Maid is stated to be a Ward of Chancery. -- Cork Paper.

Morning Advertiser, 17th January 1824.

I'm not entirely clear about the whole 'ward of chancery' thing, but you can read about it here in Jan Bondeson's book. 
In the same paper on 27th December 1822, they report the entertainments at the Olympic Theatre. "The humourous transformation of a baloon and a salmon into a mermaid, and making it a Ward of Chancery, created the highest mirth."

Mermaid on St Kilda

Cliffs off St Kilda. CC image by Mike Pennington.

 A poor Welch seaman, who was last summer cast away in a squall on the island of St Kilda, applied to a gentleman in Ayr last week for pecuniary aid to help him on to Carnarvon. He stated in consequence of the little intercourse which exists between the island and the mainland, he had been detained there till lately, and related a variety of circumstances as to the habits and opinions of the St Kildians, which removed all doubt as to the authenticity of his story.

A belief in the existence of mermaids, it seems, is universal among this little known people, and although the Welchman at first was extremely sceptical on the subject, he was finally converted by the convincing evidence of ocular demonstration.

To secure to himself the means of a precarious subsistence he was obliged to participate in the dangerous labours of the islanders, and one day while he hung suspended over one of those dreadful precipices, from which "The crows and choughs that wing the midway air Show scarce so large as beetles" in search of feathers and birds' eggs, the staple produce of the island, his attention was drawn to the unruffled sea beneath by a strange unearthly sound, as if some monster of the deep were raising its voice in song, in mockery to the human race. At the same moment a native similarly engaged on the rocks near him, exclaimed, "The mermaid, the mermaid!" and the astonished Welchman descried on the surface of the magnificent waters a being resembling humanity; but yet so curious withal, as to start a doubt in his mind as to the reality of the vision.

The description which he gave our informant of its form and features, varied little from the accounts of other historians of veracity, who have had the luck to behold these ominous creatures. Under a very short forehead were two small round eyes, separated by a flat nose, and the cheeks, which were exceedingly broad, were split across by a mouth which nearly reached from ear to ear. The chin and neck were short, and altogether it presented that dumpy appearance which has been often assigned to the rustic maidens of the Welch mountains -- Ayr paper.

Caledonian Mercury, 19th December, 1825.

Falklands mermaid

Seal skeleton by H Zel (CC)

A South Sea Mermaid. - The following strange circumstance is mentioned in Weddell's interesting voyage towards the South Pole. If true, it supports the popular belief of the existence of mermaids:-

A sailor had been left on one side of Hall Island, one of the Falklands, to take care of some produce, while the rest of the crew were engaged on the other side. "The sailor," says Mr Weddell, "had gone to bed, and about 10 o'clock he heard a noise resembling human cries, and as daylight in these latitudes never disappears at this season, he rose and looked around, but on seeing no person he returned to bed; presently he heard the noise again, and rose a second time, but still saw nothing. Conceiving, however, the possibility of a boat being upset, and that some of the crew might be clinging to some detached rocks, he walked along the beach a few steps, and heard the voice more distinctly, but in a musical strain. On searching around, he saw an object lying on a rock, a dozen yards from the shore, at which he was somewhat frightened. The face and shoulders appeared of human form, and of a reddish colour; over the shoulders hung long green hair; the tail resembled that of a seal, but the extremities of the arms he could not see distinctly.

The creature continued to make a musical noise, while he gazed about two minutes, and on perceiving him, it disappeared in an instant. Immediately when the man saw his officer, he told this wild tale, the truth of which was, of course, doubted; but to add weight to his testimony, (being a Catholic), he made a cross on the sand, which he kissed in form of making oath to his statement. When the story was told me, I ridiculed it; but, by way of diversion, I sent for the sailor who saw this non-descript into the cabin, and questioned him respecting it. He told me the story as I have related it, and in so clear and positive a manner, making oath as to the truth, that I concluded he must have seen the animal he described, or that it must have been the effect of a disturbed imagination."

Caledonian Mercury, 24th October 1825.

.....

One day we were camping near the edge of the water separating Lindisfarne island from the mainland. It was getting dark and this eerie (ever so eerie) soft wailing, of many voices, sprang up across the water. To begin with we thought it must be a natural noise of the wind or sea. But eventually we twigged it was a colony of seals out on a sand bank somewhere. 

I'm not dismissing the tale. I mean our seals did not have long green hair. But it is true that seals can make a strange noise, at least in Northumbria. Perhaps seals make strange noises down on the Falklands. 

It's notable that James Weddell has a seal named after him, one which he saw in the Antarctic. So he did have an interest in seals. But here he doesn't seem to suggest it Definitely was one? Perhaps I should find the work from which this is extracted.

R

Even accusations of fraud can be turned to business advantage.

Advertisement - The Mermaid in the Sporting World.

So much has been said for and against this wonderful ainimal, and perhaps with a view to bring the period of dissection earlier than is intended by the proprietor, and we understand it is his determination to satisfy the public opinion on this important question, by some of our first medical men and naturalists, as soon as the bare expenses that he has incurred by bringing it to this country are liquidated, which cannot be long now, from the many hundreds of spectators that daily call to view it, among the number many of our Noble Families, it has also been honoured by visits of Royalty.

The difference of opinion is now so great, whether it will turn out a natural production or a made-up deception, that a great deal of betting has taken place on the event; and as many persons back the strength of their opinion for and against the Mermaid, the sporting men will have a fine opportunity of making a good book, as some are laying 5 and 6 to 4 on the Mermaid being a natural production, while others are laying the same odds and even 2 to 1 against it. A sporting Gentleman, who is supposed to have some concern in this Mermaid, has taken many bets and some long odds to a large amount, that it really is what is represented - a Mermaid.

It is now exhibiting at Watson's, Turf Coffee-house, St. James's-street.

Morning Chronicle, 20th November 1822.

In common with everybody else who could raise a shilling, we yesterday went to see this interesting specimen at the Turf Coffee-house, St James's-street. The visitors were too numerous to permit us to make so close an examination of it as we yet hope to do. Its head has some resemblance to that of a baboon, and there is still a remnanat of pendant hair upon it. The hands, and fingers with nails, seem perfectly human. Its mammae are small but perfect, and its lower part bears considerable resemblance to that of a salmon.

It was obtained by a Dutchman from the natives of the Molaccas, in whose possession it had been some time. It proves that they know how to preserve animals. The skin is much shrivelled, and we should say that the animal was aged, though it is not large; being with the tail straitened, not more than a yard in length.

We are told that Sir Everard home had it for some hours to inspect, and could discover nothing like deception in it. It has also been examined Mr. Brooks and other celebrated anatomists. We shall give more particulars of it hereafter. A vast number of females go to see it; but we think it right for their information, to caution them that it is, however curious, a most hideous looking animal, and its beauty has acquired no addition by the means used to preserve it in a dried state.

(True Briton).

In the Manchester Mercury, 12th November 1822.

Westmorland Gazette on a London mermaid

Another Mermaid of better manufacture than the former has just been brought to London, for exhibition. The cockneys swallowed the last tolerably for a while, we wonder how this will go down.  -- The Duke of Gloucester has been to see it!
A Swiss Giantess, is now exhibiting in London, measuring six feet five inches high, and being proportionally stout.
The cockneys we understand are flocking in crowds to see  the invisible girl at the Lower Room, Spring Gardens.

Westmorland Gazette,  26th June, 1824.

 

 

 Here's the Duke referred to.  He looks pretty wide eyed. Perhaps he was quite decent: he was all for the abolition of slavery. But he did have a nickname: Silly Billy. Perhaps that was all part of why the Westmorland Gazette thought they'd take the piss.

Horniman museum has a mermaid

If you want to visit a Feejee mermaid, they have one at the Horniman Museum in London. It's been CAT-scanned and otherwise investigated. You can read about it

at the Guardian,

and also on the Horniman Museum's website itself.

A longer article from the Journal of Museum Ethnography can be downloaded from here.

A rather similar creature, CC image from the Wellcome Trust

French Mermaid

A fisherman at St. Valery sur Somme, (France,) a few days since, caught in his net, a fish exactly resembling the description given of Mermaid [sic]. The head and breast are of the human form, and when half the body is out of water, it has the appearance of a woman. It was sent by the Perfect of the Department to Paris, where it was hoped it would arive alive -- French Paper.

 Wexford Conservative, 2nd August 1834.

painting by Charles Landelle

Norwich mermaids

Mermaid -- There are now exhibiting about this city, two curious nondescripts; they are termed the Mermaid and Merman. They were caught by a fisherman on the Isle of Sanda, one of the Orkney Islands, on the 2nd January last. -- Norwich Mercury.

In the Leicestershire Mercury, 20th July 1839.

CC image Danielclauzier

Mermaid jape.

Hoax. -- Some wags having reported that a mermaid was to be seen at the North-wall yesterday morning, a crowd of persons assembled on the quay. After enduring a smart shower of snow, they had to bear hearty jeers from the by-standers on the approach of the Mermaid - a handsome, round-sterned steamer from Bristol - to take up the position of the Jupiter between Dublin and Glasgow - the latter having been dispatched with troops the evening previous to Liverpool, where she is to be refitted with new boilers, &c. &c. The Duchess of Kent arriving same tide was an additional source of amusement. -- Evening Packet.

In the Wexford Conservative, 22nd May 1839.

A mermaid paddle steamer.

Mermaid at Rossbeigh, Kerry

A Mermaid -- We have it from authority, so respectable as to admit of no doubt, that so rare and extraordinary a phenomenon as a Mermaid has, during the present summer, frequently made its appearance at Rossbeigh in Castlemain Bay. It often rests on a rock, distant about 300 yards from the shore, and has been distinctly seen by thousands of people. The face, neck, breast, and hands, strongly resemble those of a human being; but, in its movements in the water, it has been clearly perceived the body ends in the tail of a fish. It is a solitary creature, unaccompanied by any of its own species, and from the appearance of the breasts, and lower part of the body, it is supposed, by all who have seen it, to be feminine. It was seen to use its hands in washing and rubbing its face. -- Kerry Post.

In the Clonmel Herald, 31st August 1836.



Cynical, possibly slightly racist version: 

A "Rare" Mermaid. --  A Kerry paper assures us that "the rare and extraordinary phenomenon" - a real Mermaid - has recently been exhibiting itself (in a state of nudity) at Rossbeighs, in Castlemain Bay. "It often rests," adds the writer, "on a rock distant three hundred yards from the shore, and has been distinctly seen by thousands of people. The face, neck, breasts, and hands, strongly resemble those of a human being" or no doubt a whale! Our readers are not not to place the most implicit faith in the stories of Kerry people, for they have the rare power of seeing that which is invisible to every body else. It is firmly believed in that enlightened district that a lad named Dick Fitzgerald but a few years since actually contracted with a female "phenomenon" of the same character.

The Scotsman, 14th September 1836.

Rossbeigh. looks alright. CC image Goatoo

The Rossbeigh mermaid pressed into service by the church.

Work for the Kerry Mermaid.
-- A correspondent  informs us - "The mermaid on the bay of Dingle is nothing but a northern seal, being larger and more silvery in its colour than those on this coast, I have seen it repeatedly, probable the creature is weak, which may be the cause of it being so much out of its latitude. Of course the supersitious called it a mermaid, and the priest encouraged the idea, saying it was sent to frighten off the fish from the coast, as a punishment for fishing on Sundays." - Limerick Chronicle

In the Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 5th September 1836.

Did you know the ten commandments aren't even consistent? Image

The Kerry Evening Post also seems to have treated the tale humourously:

 --The Rossbeigh MERMAID presents her compliments to the JACKANAPES of the Tralee Mercury, and requests he will be pleased to accept her best thanks for the kind notice he has, in his last publications, honoured her with on her arrival on those shores. The JACKANAPES and all other APES (particularly the OURANG-OUTANG,) have as grotesque a resemblance to "the human form divine" as the Mermaid herself; she, therefore, requests that in future her scaly tail may be left untouched. The great deficiency in the apish tribes, is however immediately perceptible in the interior of the skull of the jackanapes; its emptiness being proved by the incessant saucy chatter of the animal, its malicious grimace and its attempts to bite its betters, who sometimes tame it by a few sound kicks, though, in general, they look down upon it with utter contempt. Notwithstanding its habitual impertinence, it fawns on and cringes to a beast (not a baboon without a tail, but a kind of WANDEROO, with nearly forty joints to his hinder extremity) bearing a monstrous draggle-tail now trailing in the mire. The poor jackanapes vainly hoping to pick up a few fragments that may fall from the jaws of this voracious beast. The jackanapes is now, we understand about to travel which may mend his manners.

A jackanapes is a tame monkey / a cheeky person. But I'm not sure I'm in on this joke.

Mermaid court case

In the Court of Chancery, on Wednesday, Mr. Hart applied for his Lordship's injunction to restrain a Mr. Eles for removing a certain Mermaid or dried specimen, from the room in which it was now exhibiting in St. James's-street, and from selling or disposing of it. He moved upon the affidavit of Mr. Stephen Ellery, the plaintiff, who stated that in the year 1817 he became interested jointly with Eles, the defendant, in a vessel called the Pickering. The plaintiff's share was seven-eights, and the defendant the remaining one eighth; in consideration of which he was to act as master and commander of the vessel. He proceeded on a fishing expedition, and afterwards to other ports, taking up merchandize and disposing of them again, and generally carrying on a running trade. Communications were made by the defendant to the plaintiff from time to time as to the success or loss of his traffic.

Mermaid in the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille. CC image Morburre.

In December, 1821, the plaintiff received a letter from him, stating that he had received a cargo at Battavia, and was coming to Europe. In January, 1822, he received another letter, informing him that the defendant had sold the ship and cargo for 6,543l. and was returning to Antwerp for the purpose, as he alleged, of soliciting a remuneration for himself and crew, for having saved a Dutch man of war. He did not go to Antwerp, but came to London. His reason for thus changing his destination was that a vessel having arrived at Battavia bringing the mermaid, or specimen, which the defendant bought for the sum of 5,000 dollars. This money had been procured from the sale of the vessel and caargo, seven-eights of which belonged to the plaintiff. Upon the defendant's arrival in London he had taken a room for the exhibition of this mermaid, and retained the possession and the profits of his traffic for his own use.

The affidavit stated that the plaintiff believed that the defendant had no money of his own, having regularly remitted his one-eighth of the profits of his traffic for the support of his wife and family. The defendant threatened that if any claim was made he would remove the mermaid, and thus the plaintiff would be defrauded of his just share of the profits. The Lord Chancellor said that whether man, woman, or mermaid, if the right to the property was clearly made out, it was the duty of the Court to protect him. He asked whether the plaintiff swore positively to his belief that it was purchased with his money.

Mr. Hart said it was so sworn, and that he believed this purchase was the motive of the defendant's return to England. No account of the profits had been given to the plaintiff. The Lord Chancellor pronounced the injunction, and directed that the service of the minutes on the servants or agents of the defendant should be good.

The Sunday Times, 24th November 1822.