Mermaids are from folklore. Tales of the sea. People thought they were seeing mermaids, but they were really manatees. Mermaids must have been total gugoos.
Do you know of any ancient stories about mermaids?
Sailers thought they were bad luck. Other than "I saw a mermaid one time," I don't think there are a lot of specific stories.
They may have been drinking rum when they mistook a manatee for a mermaid.
Rum is aged in oak barrels. Reminds me of bourbon, which I like a lot. Maybee too much. Whoa, look out for this guy, am I right?
Yes, but I still wonder how the mistake.  Does a manatee even remotely resemble a person in the water?
Manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee ("Trichechus inunguis"), the West Indian manatee ("Trichechus manatus"), and the West African manatee ("Trichechus senegalensis"). They measure up to long, weigh as much as , and have paddle-like flippers. The etymology
collar of a sailor's suit.
Good luck Mermaids and mermen.
Mermaids usually are considered lucky, but not universally. In Trinidad and Tobago, sea-dwelling mer-men "were known to grant a wish, transform mediocrity into genius and confer wealth and power."
Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it. Several variants of the ballad "Sir Patrick Spens" depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships. In some versions, she tells them they will never