Not Only Did Christopher Columbus,

find the Americas,

as depicted in this painting above,

 but he also found mermaids, on January 9, 1493, Christopher Columbus is sailing off the coast of the Dominican Republic, when he sees what he believes are three mermaids, He was absolutely serious in this conviction and reported that they were “not half as beautiful as they are painted”, according to History, mermaids are said to be beautiful women from the waist up and have the bodies of fish from the waist down, while it’s not too far a reach to understand how lonely sailors who have been months away from home might imagine such a creature, 

 it’s far more likely that what Columbus actually saw were manatees which are are large marine mammals which have flat tails, flippers, and egg-like heads, which are also known as sea cows, are more closely related to elephants than cows, according to Live Science, the creatures, mermaids exist in the mythology of Japan, in the Arabian Nights, and in the British Isles, they’re usually of the “siren” variety, singing to men on ships or shores and luring them to drown or be eaten,

it really wasn’t until the 1837 publication of Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Little Mermaid” (on which the Disney movie with the same name was loosely based) when the modern imagining of the mermaid as something sweet and friendly came into fashion, the painting of The Little Mermaid by E. S. Hardy (circa 1890), above, even today, there are occasional “mermaid sightings”, Live Science also noted that in 2009 there were reports of a mermaid sighted off the coast of Israel where she performed a few tricks for those watching, just before sunset, and then disappeared into the night,

as an aside, 

 starting this post about Christopher Columbus, 

 it is possible even his own parents would not have recognized him, looking at paintings of him, apparently nobody thought of actually painting a portrait of him, 

every artist that painted the Italian born explorer had never met the man!