Among the Mermaids
Page 10
nor. The captain of the vessel was
sitting idling on the deck when he
heard a beautiful voice hailing him
from the sea. Looking over the side
he saw the mermaid, her long yel-
low hair floating all around her.
She asked him to be so kind as
to pull up his anchor, for it was rest-
ing upon the doorway of her house under the sea and she
was anxious to get back to Mathey, her husband, and her
children.
In alarm, the captain weighed anchor and stood out to
sea, for sailors fear that mermaids will bring bad luck. But
later he returned and told the Zennor folk of Mathey’s fate,
and they, to commemorate the strange event, and to warn
other young men against the wiles of the merrymaids, had
the mermaid figure carved in the church.
Mathey Trewella
never returned to
Zennor, nor did
the lovely stranger
ever attend church
again.
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And there it is to-day for all the world to see, and to
prove, to those who do not believe the old stories, the truth
of poor Mathey Trewella’s sad fate.
Zennor is a lovely moorland village in the neighbour-
hood of some of the wildest scenery in Cornwall. To the
south-west rugged moors stretch away to the Land’s End.
To the north a quarter of an hour’s walk brings you to the
coast with its sheltered coves and its cruel cliffs. Gurnard’s
Head, one of the most famous of all Cornish promontories,
is less than two miles away. Grim, remote, yet indescribably
fascinating, the country around Zennor is typical of that far
western corner of England which is swept continually by the
great health-giving winds of the Atlantic.
In its sheltered valleys flowers bloom all the year round.
On its bold hill-tops, boulder-strewn and wild, there remain
still the old mysterious stones and the queer beehive huts
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erected by men who inhabited this land in the dark days be-
fore Christianity.
Gorse and heather riot over the moorland. There, a
charm and peace about this too little known country that
compels health and well-being.
Yet Zennor is only five and a half miles by the moor-
land road from St. Ives, that picturesque little fishing town
that artists and golfers know so well. St. Ives, less than
seven hours’ journey from Paddington, is an ideal centre
from which to explore the coast and moorland beauties of
England’s furthest west.
Ten Little Mermaids
Looking to spot a few mermaids yourself? Here are ten mer-
maid fountains I’d recommend:
1.
Possibly the most famous mermaid statue is the “Little
Mermaid” in Copenhagen, Denmark. Perched on a
rock against the breathtaking backdrop of the blue
waters she seems to rise up from, this bronze statue
appears delicate and lifelike. Her subtle tail binds her
(separate) legs with lace-like webbing, and her back is
curled in the demure stance of a young girl lost in her
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own thoughts. She looks so real that she almost looks
sad—and her beauty is not unnoticed. If you want a
picture of this bronze mermaid, you’ll have to fight
your way to the front of the crowd!
2. A beautiful statue emerges from the wall of the Library
of Congress in Washington, DC. While one merman
rides a horse out of the water, another seems to be
changing, his human legs fusing at the ankles, as he
holds a shell against a face. Breathtaking—I’d love to
see this one in the flesh.
3. In a courtyard in the Shangri-La Inn in Bonita Springs,
Florida, a stone mermaid lies on her belly, her tail
curled to graze her thick, flowing hair. She looks out
over the bucolic resort, opened in the 1920s and boast-
ing the first healing springs in North America.
4. In Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco, California,
you’ll find a couple of mermaids bathing in a shallow
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pond. One gazes down into the eyes of the child in her
arms—illustrating quaintly the historical associations
between mermaids and fertility. Plus, there’s chocolate.
5. Henry Plant, a railroad magnate, had a striking stone
statue erected in Tampa, Florida, depicting a mermaid
and merman swimming with some large fish below a
strongbox guarded by an eagle—there seems to be an
underlying message here, but it doesn’t overshadow
the detail in the muscles on the mer-peoples’ backs or
the waves frothing up like curled fingers closing on the
torsos of the lovers.
6. The 1905 bronze Lillian Goldman Fountain of Life in
New York deserves a mention. Situated
in the Botanical Gardens, the statue
is a wonderful example of New York
City’s urban beautification ef-
forts, prominent between 1890
and 1930. The statue depicts a
sea nymph riding a shell chariot
over the crest of a wave while her
cherubic attendants struggle to
control the wild seahorses pulling
the chariot. A merman and mermaid
in the path of the oncoming nymph
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splash out of the way, casting looks of terror over their
shoulders. The mythical beauty and power of the scene
are offset by the dread in the fleeing mer-pedestrians’
faces, capturing an essence of the struggle for existence
that earned the piece its title.
7. The Poros Mermaid in Greece lifts a cupped palm to
the sky, casting her dark grey silhouette against the
vivid ribbons of penny-bronze and violet that unfurl at
sunset.
8. In the historic center of Rome, Salvi’s Trevi Fountain
towers over the water below. The largest Baroque (a
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clear, imposing, realistic style originating in the 1600s
and meaning “rough or imperfect pearl”) fountain
marks the place of one of the ancient aqueducts that
used to supply water to Rome. The story goes that the
artist, Salvi, positioned the fountain so that a neighbor-
ing barber, who tortured him with negative opinions of
the forming masterpiece, would not be able to see it. It
is believed that dropping a coin into the fountain will
ensure your return to Rome. If you are travelling with
a lover, go next door to the neighboring fountain—
couples that drink of that fountain’s water together will
remain together forever.
9. Another Copenhagen gem (and one of my personal
favorites) is the mermaid skeleton sunbathing on a rock
at the Copenhagen Harbour. It strikes a strange balance
between beautiful and creepy.
10. The mermaid fountain in Allerton Garden, Kauai,
caught my attention, as much for the stunning set-
ting as for the statue itself. The mermaid holds a fish
basket on her head and stares forward frankly, though
there is a certain sweetness to her face. Her body is a
rust-bronze color, but her butt is shiny-silver in color
because, apparently, all the tour guides rub it.
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The Ghost Ship
Nautical lore is rife with stories of ghost ships. One of the
oldest and most celebrated of these stories, the tale of the
Sarah
, started with a lover’s quarrel.
The year was 1812, and two young sailors, George Lev-
erett and Charles Jose, set out from their native Portland,
Maine, to South Freeport to build and stock a ship they
planned to use for trading in the Indies. It was there that the
pair met and fell in love with Sarah Soule. Both men vied for
the lady’s attention, but in the end it was Leverett who won
her hand in marriage. Dejected and angry, Jose disappeared.
It wasn’t until Leverett was married and his rig, the
Sarah
, was sailing due south that Jose reemerged—as captain
of an unmarked ship that was trailing the
Sarah
. Spooked,
Leverett and his crew changed course, hoping to report
Jose to the British admiralty, but they never made it. Jose’s
ship fired its cannons, killing all of the other ship’s crew and
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nearly sinking the
Sarah
. Miraculously, Leverett was not
killed, so the vengeful Jose jumped onto the deck of the
Sar-
ah
, tied the captain to the mast, and set him out to sea.
Leverett resigned himself to death—he was floating on
an open sea in an unmanned and badly damaged vessel. It
was then that the truly astonishing began to happen. Lever-
ett watched, horrified, as the crew slowly came back to life,
resuming their posts one by one. The pale and silent crew
then started guiding the ship toward home. Leverett lost
consciousness.
The ghost crew sailed the ship safely all the way to Pott’s
Point, Wales. Onlookers from the shore reported that one
foggy day, a dilapidated but fully rigged
ship materialized from the gloom and
came to a full stop. An apparently life-
less man was then lowered from the ship
onto a smaller boat and rowed to shore. The
crew, silent and pallid, never said a word.
Once their cargo was safely laid on a rock,
they returned to the ship and slowly sailed
away. The ship was never to be seen again.
Captain Leverett regained consciousness
and lived to tell the tale.
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Vanishing Voyager
The largest United States naval ship ever to disappear with-
out a trace was the USS
Cyclops
, a 19,360-ton collier. In
March 1918, on a return voyage from Brazil, the ship and all
its hands vanished, and the wreckage was never recovered.
Twin Shipwrecks
In 1922 the
Lyman Stewart
was wrecked off the coast of
Land’s End, San Francisco’s rockiest and most treacherous
section of coast. In 1937, the
Frank Buck
was wrecked on the
exact same rock where the
Lyman Stewart
had gone down.
The odd thing? Both ships were built as twin ships, side by
side in the shipyard of their origin.
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Harmful Under the Sea
Of more than 3,700 World War II shipwrecks still at the
bottom of the Pacific Ocean, many contain the remnants of
toxic cargo, such as oil, diesel, gasoline, and chemicals. These
harmful pollutants have the potential to wipe out ecosystems
and spoil beaches, and, in doing so, influence the economies
of the affected countries.
The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman was a ship that tried to round Cape
Cod but failed against the strong head winds, then attempt-
ed to make Cape Horn and again failed in the wind. The
ship was rumored to sail eternally, the sail-
ors fated to struggle towards, but never
reach, the shore. The tale says that any
sailor who spots the cursed ship will
die within the day. The image of the
sailors crying for help and hauling the
sail after centuries of struggling at sea in-
spired such works as Coleridge’s “Rime of
the Ancient Mariner.”
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Strange and Sumptuous Seaweed
Seaweed is used in Chinese medicine to treat liver, stomach,
kidney, and lung problems.
The Giant Kelp (
Macrocystis
) is one of the largest plants in
the world.
Kelp grows in cool waters clear or shallow enough to be sun
-
lit. The waves carry in nutrients. Kelp can grow so densely
that it forms a forest.
Sea otters help kelp forests by eating the animals that graze
on kelp.
Seaweed is used in some places as a fertilizer.
Nori, a Japanese red seaweed, accounts for $2 billion in pro
-
duction value in Japan alone.
Certain fine biochemicals can be extracted from seaweed—
in the future, these biochemicals could be an answer to the
diminishing biofuel resources.
Seaweed baths are popular in Ireland and Britain. They are
considered relaxing by patrons, and many swear by their
powers to treat arthritis and rheumatism. They look and
smell awful, but that can be washed off with a cold shower
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later. (Baths can be taken in Strandhill, County Sligo, South
of Sligo Town, Celtic Seaweed Baths, and Killcullen’s Sea-
weed Baths, to name a few.)
Seaweed extracts are used in some surprising foods—in-
cluding yogurt, chocolate milk, health drinks, and some
German beers.
Some say that seaweed improves one’s attractiveness to po-
tential love interests.
In a freak weather phenomenon, a tornado carried seaweed
twenty miles from Clevedon Beach to Berkeley, Gloucester-
shire. Residents woke to find their cars and gardens plas-
tered with wet seaweed.
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Dunkin Donuts is releasing a new pork and seaweed do-
nut in Asia. Yes, pork. And seaweed. Donut.
Dubbed “Ninja Seaweed,” one seaworm buries itself be-
neath the sea, leaving only its kelp-like mouth still visible
above the surface. It uses this mouth to filter nutrients from
the water. Its plantlike appearance is deceptive—touch a leaf
on this creature, and the whole thing is quickly sucked back
into the seafloor.
Is seaweed the new toothpaste? Originally researching
an enzyme extracted from a particular seaweed for the pur-
pose of cleaning ship hulls, scientists found that it is ve
ry
Other things that have fallen from the sky:
♦ Fish(Apparently,Berkeleyresidentsclaimedthey
wouldn’t have found it so unusual if it had been fish
raining on them—one man even lamented what he
considered a downgrade, stating that had it been
fish, he could have made a nice meal of it.)
♦ Frogsandtadpoles—Greece,1981.
♦ Squid—FalklandIslands,1997.
♦ Spiders—Argentina,2007(Irefusetofullyaccept
that this happened).
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effective in cutting down plaque! I hope they aren’t using any
other ship cleaners on their teeth.
A beach in Victoria, BC, Canada, is covered in seaweed
every few weeks. The seaweed remains, covering the sand,
until the tide turns and it is washed back out to sea. Locals
say it smells bad, looks beautiful, and makes a great fertil-
izer—one man travels to the beach with a shovel every time
the shore is covered.
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Sargasso Seaweed
The Sargasso Sea, also known as the Mid-Atlantic Drift, is a
place in the Atlantic Ocean where objects converge. Named
for the sargassum seaweed drifting there, it can trap ships in
a net of debris and is associated with the Bermuda Triangle.
Strong currents surround it, but it remains a patch of calm
water under windless skies. Boats used to get trapped there,
unable to sail for weeks because of the calm weather, and
forced to throw horses overboard to save water—earning the
area the titles the Horse Latitudes or the Doldrums.
The tales of the Sargasso Sea predate those of the Ber-
muda Triangle, where planes and ships have mysteriously
disappeared, but it lies near the mythical black hole of the
sea. It is possible that methane gas there could sink boats
and low-flying planes, and that disruptions in the earth’s
magnetic field could affect navigation systems. It seems to
me that any number of things are possible in the patch of