![]() ![]() These tales were likely inspired by real-life encounters with whales – both alive and dead. How to defeat this fearsome beast? Try sounding a trumpet, in order to startle it away. But when sailors stepped aboard to prepare their dinner on land, the great whale would wake, and sink below the surface, bringing the sailors and their ship with it.Īnother version, the prister, was described as being “two hundred cubits long, and very cruel.” It had two blowholes, which could fire onto ships like water cannons. In some versions of the legend, it was a monstrous whale (called the Devil Whale) that lay asleep in the water and was frequently mistaken for an island. To others, it was a serpent, crocodile or marine mammal. In the earliest days of sailing, encounters with whales led to strange stories and the creation of the myth of the Leviathan, which manifested in different ways. It lives at depths of up to 1,000 metres, probably in order to avoid making a tasty snack for its top predator – the deep-diving sperm whale. ![]() The giant squid is elusive, so its maximum size is still hotly debated. That’s huge, but not likely to take down any ships. They can grow up to 15 metres, including their tentacles. Today there are 21 confirmed species of giant squid. The existence of giant squid was confirmed by Danish naturalist Japetus Steenstrup in 1857 he named it Architeuthis dux, which translates as “ruling squid” in Latin. The giant squid, however, is a real animal, and was likely the inspiration for these cautionary tales. The good news is that the kraken does not exist. That’s definitely the stuff of nightmares. Once the kraken sinks back below the surface, the real trouble starts: its massive size was said to create a colossal whirlpool, taking anything still at the surface down with it. ![]() The kraken is hard to detect, because it lurks under boats in the dark of the water, but it was said that if fishermen suddenly started catching a great many fish, it was because the kraken had scared them to the surface, and was ready to attack. The kraken is a terrifying sea monster said to live off the coasts of Norway and Greenland – it is described as a vast creature with giant tentacles, all the better to drag fishermen or even entire ships of sailors to their death beneath the waves. Out of all the sea monsters of legend, few are as fearsome as the kraken. This is one of the earliest European accounts of a manatee sighting, though it was hardly complimentary to the manatees: they are “not half as beautiful as they are painted.” Kraken or giant squid? In 1493 he wrote in his journals about spotting three mermaids from aboard his fleet to the Americas. Add to this a behaviour known as spy-hopping, whereby a manatee rises vertically out of the water to check things out at the surface, and it’s easy to see how a sailor might mistake this curious sight for a siren, especially after months at sea.Įven famed explorer Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids. Female manatees have been known to cradle their pups in their flippers while nursing. So how did the giant, slow-moving sea cow inspire the legend of mermaids? It could have to do with their decidedly human-like behavior with their young. They are from the order Sirenia, a clue that they were probably the animal that inspired written documents about so-called sirens Also called sea cows, they are big, slow-moving, mustachioed grey animals related to elephants. ![]() Manatees are the largest aquatic herbivores. These stories are thought to have been inspired by a rather unlikely source. From The Little Mermaid to “mermaid hair, don’t care,” mermaids and sirens proliferate our culture. The legend of sirens or mermaids – half-human, half-fish and, in some versions of the story, sweet songstresses that lure sailors to their doom – is probably one of the best known tales of mythological sea creatures. Today we’re taking a closer look at some fantastically strange sea monsters, and the real-life sea creatures that inspired them. Ancient seafarers saw strange and wonderful real-life sea creatures on their ocean journeys, and through the power of imagination and oral storytelling, these animals took on larger-than-life proportions. It was explorer Robert Ripley himself who said that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Where tales of mythological sea monsters are concerned, this is definitely true. ![]()
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