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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.01.12 02:13l 47 Lines 2055 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 16116_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 9
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120109/2337Z 16116@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.47
Jan 9, 1493:
Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids
On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus,
sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three "mermaids"--in
reality manatees--and describes them as "not half as beautiful as
they are painted." Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set
off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and
Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia.
Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to
the Americas, or "New World."
Mermaids, mythical half-female, half-fish creatures, have existed
in seafaring cultures at least since the time of the ancient
Greeks. Typically depicted as having a woman's head and torso, a
fishtail instead of legs and holding a mirror and comb, mermaids
live in the ocean and, according to some legends, can take on a
human shape and marry mortal men. Mermaids are closely linked to
sirens, another folkloric figure, part-woman, part-bird, who live
on islands and sing seductive songs to lure sailors to their
deaths.
Mermaid sightings by sailors, when they weren't made up, were
most likely manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows (which became
extinct by the 1760s due to over-hunting). Manatees are
slow-moving aquatic mammals with human-like eyes, bulbous faces
and paddle-like tails. It is likely that manatees evolved from an
ancestor they share with the elephant. The three species of
manatee (West Indian, West African and Amazonian) and one species
of dugong belong to the Sirenia order. As adults, they're
typically 10 to 12 feet long and weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds.
They're plant-eaters, have a slow metabolism and can only survive
in warm water.
Manatees live an average of 50 to 60 years in the wild and have
no natural predators. However, they are an endangered species. In
the U.S., the majority of manatees are found in Florida, where
scores of them die or are injured each year due to collisions
with boats.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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