Jersey Mermaid
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 26th, 2007
August 10 – The people of Tom’s River, N.J., are just now having a little sensation – it being nothing less than the capture of a veritable mermaid or at least a water animal strongly resembling that poetic species of fish. Two fishermen, while pursuing their vocation a few days ago in the Inlet, effected the capture after a violent struggle. At seeing the animal its captors became hugely frightened, and took to their heels. After a while they mustered up sufficient courage to return and look at their prize. In appearance it more resembled a human being than a fish, having a face frightfully like that of a man or woman, with body and breasts exactly resembling the latter. The lower part terminated in a fish tail. The fishermen, after looking at the monster, became so superstitious, that they threw it back into the sea. It’s a pity they did not preserve it.“Mermaid found in New Jersey,” Port Jervis Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, New York, August 10, 1869.
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No such creature as a Mermaid, A Manatee yes, it could come up along the coast from Florida
One must remember to take old newspaper accounts with a grain of salt… there were many newspaper hoaxes in the 1800s, designed to attract readers. In my lake monster research, I found that newspaper accounts before about 1900 were often very outlandish and incredible (that is, “not credible”)!
Most mermaids round here have legs…
Sounds like a manatee.
Humm, which would the lot of us rather discover a mermaid, or Bigfoot. I vote… uh.
Let’s just hope that (if real) it was just a mermaid and not a siren or any other of the dark mer-creatures that lurk in the scary stories of ancient sailors.
oh, and I would have to vote big foot