Old Print Article: “A Yarn From Seattle–Capture of A Singular Creature Resembling A Merman,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896)

August 29, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Hastily raising his weapon his lordship fired and hit the creature between the eyes."

I checked the date of this 1890’s Brooklyn Daily Eagle article about some English fishermen who allegedly killed a merman (male mermaid). I intiially assumed it was an April Fool’s Day prank, but the story was reported in earnest. The article doesn’t say it, but these Brits were likely drunk out of their skulls. Also: They may have murdered a hobo who’d gone swimming. An excerpt:

“A party of Englishmen who have been porpoise fishing in the Pacific discovered and killed a monster that resembled a merman. The party was off the island of Watmoff on a housing boat and Lord Devonshire, one of the fishers, had just shot a porpoise, when some one called out ‘Look there,’ pointing to a frightful looking monster about a cable’s length away. Hastily raising his weapon his lordship fired and hit the creature between the eyes. The shot, though it did not kill it, so stunned the animal that it lay perfectly still on the surface of the sea.

It showed fight when hauled into the boat and had to be killed to prevent it from swamping the craft. The monster is said to be one of the strangest freaks ever put together. It measures 10 feet from its nose to the end of its fluke shaped tail and the girth of its human shaped body was just six feet. It would weigh close to 500 pounds. From about the breast bone to the point at the base of the stomach it looked like a man. Its arms, quite human in shape and form, are very long and covered completely with long, coarse, dark reddish hair, as is the whole body.

It had, or did have, at one time four fingers and a thumb on each hand, almost human in shape, except that in place of finger nails there were long, slender claws. But in days probably long since gone by, it had evidently fought some monster that had got the best of it, for the forefinger of the right hand, the little finger of the left and the left thumb are missing entirely. Immediately under the right breast is a broad, ugly looking scar which looked as if sometime in the past it had been inflicted by a swordfish. The creature is now being preserved in ice at Seattle and will be shipped to the British museum.”

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