1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,120 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class as a production of I 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: a show that demystifies history one day at a time. 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:20,600 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Louzier, and today we're talking about the time 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: when a lonesome Christopher Columbus mistook a one ton sea 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: cow for a shapely mermaid. The day was January nine, 7 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: fourteen nine three. Italian explorer Christopher Columbus recorded a sighting 8 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: of three mermaids while sailing near what is now the 9 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: Dominican Republic. He had set out from Spain six months 10 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: earlier on his first voyage in search of a western 11 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: trade route to Asia. Rather than finding one, he infamously 12 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: stumbled into the America's instead. By January of the next year, 13 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: Columbus had lost two of his four ships and was 14 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:13,320 Speaker 1: eager to head home. It was one week before setting 15 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,320 Speaker 1: out for Spain that Columbus spotted something strange off the 16 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: prow of his ship. In his journal entry for January nine, 17 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: he wrote, quote, Yesterday, when I was going to the 18 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: Rio del Oro, I saw three mermaids that came up 19 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: very high out of the sea. They were not as 20 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,800 Speaker 1: beautiful as they are painted since in some ways they 21 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: have a face like a man. The mermaids hadn't proved 22 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:45,320 Speaker 1: as attractive as Columbus would have liked, but in their defense, 23 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: they were manatees, also known as sea cows. Manatees are large, 24 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: slow moving marine mammals. They have egg shaped heads, bulbous faces, 25 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: and whiskers. They swim using two four were limbs called flippers, 26 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: and a flat paddle shaped tail. A fully grown manateee 27 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: is generally between nine and twelve feet long and ways 28 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: anywhere from four hundred to thirteen hundred pounds. They're nicknamed 29 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:20,399 Speaker 1: sea cows because they graze on underwater plants and grasses, 30 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,519 Speaker 1: although they likely evolved from a common ancestor of elephants, 31 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:29,639 Speaker 1: not cattle. By now, you're probably wondering how anyone could 32 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: confuse a giant aquatic cow for a mermaid, a legendary 33 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: half human half fish creature. It's definitely a stretch, but 34 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: there are some aspects of manateee anatomy that help explain 35 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: the confusion. For one thing, each of their flippers has 36 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: five sets of finger like bones, which give their limbs 37 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: the general shape of arms and hands. They also have 38 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: a vertebrae that acts like a neck, enabling manateee to 39 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: turn their heads from side to side. Lastly, and most crucially, 40 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: manatees are known to occasionally do tail stands in shallow water, 41 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: and that's exactly how Columbus described them, rising high out 42 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: of the water. So with all of that in mind, 43 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: it's possible to imagine that from a certain distance, at 44 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: a certain angle, in a certain light, manatees could be 45 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 1: mistaken for mermaids, or at least for something vaguely human shaped. 46 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: Of course, we should also consider the viewers state of 47 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: mind in all of this, because remember, Columbus had spent 48 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: many months at sea with his all male crew. By 49 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: that point, anything slightly curvy was probably enough to catch 50 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: his eye, and then his imagination could fill in the 51 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: missing details. It's true that Columbus was a bit let 52 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: down by the manatees physical appearance, but he's still found 53 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: them beautiful, just not as beautiful as they had been painted. 54 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: There are only three species of manatee, West African, Amazonian, 55 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: and West Indian, also known as the American manatee. Columbus 56 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,479 Speaker 1: noted that he saw the three mermaids while on his 57 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: way to Rio del Oro, or as it's known today 58 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,239 Speaker 1: the Republic of Haiti. That means his mermaids were most 59 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: likely West Indian manatees, but the journal entry goes on 60 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: to say that Columbus had actually seen some of the 61 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:39,720 Speaker 1: creatures before while traveling along the coasts of Guinea and Liberia. 62 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: On that earlier occasion, he most likely saw a doogo, 63 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: a close cousin of the manatee and the only other 64 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: member of the Serenia order of fully aquatic mammals. If 65 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,719 Speaker 1: the words Syreennia rings a bell, that's because it's derived 66 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 1: from the sirens of Greek mythology, the vicious creatures who 67 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: were said to lure lonely sailors to their death after 68 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: being mistaken for friendly mermaids. Manatees and doo gongs have 69 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: helped perpetuate the myth of mermaids for centuries, but the 70 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,280 Speaker 1: sailors of old had been primed to see all kinds 71 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:21,279 Speaker 1: of mythical creatures in the water. In the age of exploration, 72 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: seafaring was driven by fantastical rumors and folklore, and old 73 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: maps were littered with unknown areas which illustrators had helpfully 74 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:37,040 Speaker 1: filled in with mermaids, krakens, and sea dragons. Columbus's expedition 75 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 1: added more fuel to that fire. After his return from 76 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:47,160 Speaker 1: the America's European side shows began advertising recently discovered mermaids 77 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: from the New World, and in most cases they were 78 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: actually dead manatees or doo gongs. Still, the Sirenians have 79 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: been playing tricks on sailor's eyes for long before Columbus. 80 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: In the Pacific nation of Palau, ancient stories and wooden 81 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:09,599 Speaker 1: carvings depict young women transforming into doo gongs and then 82 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: saving fishermen lost at sea. In fact, the word doo 83 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 1: gong actually means lady of the sea in the Malay language, 84 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,159 Speaker 1: and three thousand year old drawings of doo gongs have 85 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:27,119 Speaker 1: been found in Malaysian caves. As for mermaids, they showed 86 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,039 Speaker 1: up and recorded history around the same time. The first 87 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: description of the creatures was written in Assyria in about 88 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: one thousand BC. From there, mermaids swam their way into 89 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:44,719 Speaker 1: the cultures of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome during Antiquity. They 90 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: then made the leap to European and Arabic cultures during 91 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: the Medieval Age, meaning that by the time Columbus made 92 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: his sighting mermaids had existed in the collective consciousness for 93 00:06:56,279 --> 00:07:00,360 Speaker 1: nearly three millennia. In light of that, we can probably 94 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: cut him some slack for thinking manatees were mermaids, but 95 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,679 Speaker 1: he's still on the hook for all the other stuff. 96 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: As for manatees and doo gongs, they've become almost as 97 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: rare as a real mermaid. Both animals are now considered 98 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 1: endangered and vulnerable to extinction. They have no natural predators, 99 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: so most of the decline is due to habitat loss, 100 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 1: dwindling sea grass and waterways and lagoons, and boat collisions. 101 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:33,560 Speaker 1: These issues are especially pressing in Florida, where more than 102 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: a thousand West Indian manatees died in one alone, the 103 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: largest death toll ever recorded for a single year. If 104 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: humans make us stronger push, we can still stop these 105 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 1: gentle giants from becoming myths themselves and help preserve the 106 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,640 Speaker 1: strangeness and wonder of our planet's oceans in the process. 107 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,680 Speaker 1: If you'd like future generations to have the chance to 108 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: embarrass themselves I'm mistaking these animals for mermaids. You should 109 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: visit Save the Manateee dot org and Save the doogong 110 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: dot org to learn how to help I'm Gay Bluesier 111 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history 112 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,520 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. You can learn even more 113 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:25,040 Speaker 1: about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 114 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,760 Speaker 1: at t d I HC Show, and if you have 115 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: any Mermaid sightings to report, you can send them my 116 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,599 Speaker 1: way at this day at i heart media dot com. 117 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: Feel free to rank the attractiveness of the Mermaid on 118 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:41,559 Speaker 1: a scale of your own choosing. Just keep in mind 119 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:45,319 Speaker 1: that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thanks 120 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,559 Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you 121 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for 122 00:08:52,000 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: another day in History Class. Yeah. For more podcasts from 123 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: I Heeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 124 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.