What you will find here is the recorded sightings from
fishermen, women, men of standing within the community of mermaids
and mermen. Some are quite convincing while others are a trifle
vague. Nonetheless they all make good reading, you decide. .
.
IN AN ATTEMPT TO FIND A NORTHERN PASSAGE TO THE EAST INDIES Henry
Hudson's log reported on June 15, 1608 that two of his company,
Thoms Hill and Robert Raynor said that they had seen a mermaid,
their descritption read: "From the Navill upward, her backe and
breasts were like a womans. . . her skin was 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".
A SCHOOL MASTER OF THURSO IN CAITHNESS, William Munro, wrote in a
report in THE TIMES on September 8, 1809 that twelve years earlier
he had been walking along Sandside Bay shore when he saw what he
first thought was a naked woman, sitting on a rock and combing her
light brown hair. The face was plump, with ruddy cheeks and blue
eyes. If the rock where the woman sat had not been so dangerous for
swimmers, Munro would have assumed it was human. After a few
minutes it dropped into the sea and swam away. Others had seen it
too. . . Munro's lengthy letter of this descrition read:
'It may be necessary to remark, that previous to the period I
beheld this object, I had heard it frequently reported by several
persons, and some of them persons whose veracity I have never
disputed, that they had seen such a phenomenon as I have described,
though then, like many other, I was not disposed to credit their
testimony on the subject. I can say of a truth, that it was only by
seeing this phenomenon, I was perfectly convinced of its
existence.
'If the above narrative can in any degree be subservient towards
establishing the existence of a phenomenon hitherto almost
incredible to naturalists, or to remove the scepticism of others,
who are ready to dispute everything which they cannot fully
comprehend, you are welcome to it from,
Dear Sir,
Your most obliged, and most humble servant,
William Munro.'
NEAR THE BULLERS O'BUCHAN, NORTH OF CRUDEN BAY, ON THE COAST OF
ABERDEENSHIRE 1870, an old fisherman swore that he had not only
seen but conversed with a mermaid beneath the red granite cliffs.
It appears that it had been a fairly general belief that the caves
on this rocky coast were the homes of mermaids.
THE SCHOOL MASTER OF RATHVEN, BANFFSHIRE, in the ABERDEEN
CHRONICLE, April 20, 1814, a report that two fishermen at
Portgordon, about a mile west of Buckie, whose character he was
able to vouch for, were returning from fishing in Sprey Bay; 'about
three or four o'clock yesterday afternoon, when about a quater of a
mile from the shore, the sea being perfectly calm, they observed,
at a small distance from their boat, with its back turned towards
them, and half its body above the water, a creature of a tawny
colour, appearing like a man sitting, with his body half bent.
Surprised at this they approached towards him, till they came
within a few yards, when the noise made by the boat occasioned the
ceature to turn about, which gave the men a better opportunity of
observing him. His countenance was swarthy, his hair short and
curled, of a colour between a green and a grey: he had small eyes,
a flat nose, his mouth was large, and his arms of an extraordinary
length. Above the waist, he was shaped like a man, but as the water
was clear my informants could perceive that from the waist
downwards, his body tapered considerably or, as they expressed it,
like a large fish without scales but could not see the extemity.'
But this was not the end of their encounter for he dived and
surfaced some distance away and was not alone. With him was what
appeared to be a female of his species for she had breasts and hair
that reached past her shoulders. The two men then rowed as fast as
they could to land where they related their story to the school
master.
CAMPBELTOWN, JOHN M'ISAAC, A FARMER, October 29, 1811, made a sworn
statement to the Sheriff-substitute and the parish minister that he
had met a mermaid in Campbeltown. The description he gave ran for
more than five hundred words and was so convincing that Rev. Dr.
George Robertson, Rev. Norman MacLeod, and James Maxwell, Esq.,
Chamberlain of Mull wrote that they were, 'satisfied that he was
impressed with a perfect belief, that the appearance of the animal
he has described was such as he has represented it to be.'
EXMOUTH, August 11, 1812, a Mr Toupin reported that not only had he
seen a mermaid but he had heard her sing wild melodies, similer to
the sound of an Aeolian harp.
THE ISLAND OF BENBECULA IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES, about 1830, women
cutting seaweed reported they had met a creature of female form
playing happily off the shore. A few days later her dead body was
found two miles from where she had first been seen. The description
of the creature was recorded thus, 'the upper part of the creature
was about the size of a well-fed chid of three or four years of
age, with an abnormally developed breast. The hair was long, dark
and glossy. while the skin was white, soft and tender. The lower
part of the body was like a salmon, but without scales.'
OFF THE ISLE OF YELL, 1833, six fishermen reported that their
fishing line had become entangled with a mermaid. They said they
had kept her on board their boat for three hours, and said that she
was about three feet long. She 'offered no resistance nor attempted
to bite,' but she moaned piteously. 'A few stiff bristles were on
top of the head, extending down to the shoulder, and these she
could erect and depress at pleasure, something like a crest.' She
had neither gill nor fins and there were no scales on her body. The
fishermen who were very superstitious threw her overboard
eventually and said that she dived 'in a perpendicular
direction.'
The story was heard from the skipper by a Mr Edmondson who in turn
told the Professor of Natural History at the University of
Edinburgh:
'Not one of the six men dreamed of a doubt of its being a mermaid,
and it could not be suggested that they were infulenced by their
fears, for the mermaid is not an object of terror to fishermen, it
is rather a wecome guest, and danger is apprehended from its
experiencing bad treatment. . . . The usual resources of scepticism
that the seals and other sea-animals appearing under certain
circumstances operating upon an excited imagination and so
producing ocular illusion, cannot avail here. It is quite
impossible that six Shetland fishermen could commit such a
mistake.'
OFF THE COAST OF BRITAIN, June 4, 1857, SHIPPING GAZETTE, reported
Scotish seaman had spotted a creature, 'in the shape of a woman
with full breast, dark complexion, and comely face.
ISLE OF MAN, date not given but it is reported that one crew
affirmed they had found a mermaid in their herring drift-net. 'On
examining their captive, by the largeness of her breasts and the
beauty of her compexion, it was found to be female, nothing. . .
could be more lovely, more exactly formed, in all parts above the
waist resembling a complete young woman, but below that, all fish,
with fins, and a huge spreading tail.' She was taken ashore but
they could not get her to eat or drink and at the end of the third
day when 'she began to look very ill with fasting,' they opened the
door of the house. She then glided on her tail to the beach and
plunged into the sea where she swam away surrounded by many others
of her own species.
ON THE ISLAND OF MUCK, 1947, and eighty year old fisherman reported
that he had seen a mermaid 'in the sea about twenty yards from the
shore, sitting combing her hair on a floating herringbox used to
preserve live lobsters. Unfortunately, as soon as the mermaid
looked round, she realized that she had been seen, and plunged into
the sea. But no questioning could shake the old fisherman's firm
conviction: he was adamant that he had seen a mermaid.'
