# Did sailors have sex with dugongs/manatees? (Siren/mermaid myth) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051 "2009-05-11T16:46:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/41 "2014-10-25T14:12:02Z")
The Little Mermaid’s Little Sister was also partly girl and cod though in a way which those who kissed her found odd. …but which, well worth to mention, though at first sight absurd, I, with my fond intention, preferred. - Piet Hein ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/42 "2014-10-25T14:51:58Z")
There is nothing new under the sun, and that goes for human sexuality, too. Bedouin tribesmen have known for millennia that foreign objects lodged in the uterus of their camels would prevent conception, and no doubt they stuck other things in there, too. Hence the old joke about why camels are called ‘ships of the desert’. – Because they are full of Arab seamen. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/43 "2014-10-25T17:50:24Z")
Zombie or not… > [@ultrafilter](#): > > FYI, searching for “dolphin vagina” actually doesn’t turn up that much porn, but I think I have to clear my history anyway. “Porpoise Mouth” might be a more relevant search. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Elephant breasts look like human breasts save for being gray, wrinkled and enormous. You say that like it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/44 "2014-10-25T18:39:49Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Elephant breasts look like human breasts save for being gray, wrinkled and enormous. Grandma? ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/45 "2014-10-25T18:50:28Z")
I posted this in a similar SD thread: I have seen a photo of New Guinea natives queuing up to have sex with a dugong stranded on a beach. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/46 "2014-10-25T18:55:02Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > I posted this in a similar SD thread: > > I have seen a photo of New Guinea natives queuing up to have sex with a dugong stranded on a beach. See post #34 of this thread… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/47 "2014-10-25T21:07:09Z")
Yes, sailors used to boink manatees. But they _called them_…“cabin boys”. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/48 "2014-10-25T22:54:48Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > A warm, wet hole has a certain charm to throbbing penii, no matter what it’s attached to. “Penes”. Third declension. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/49 "2014-10-26T01:50:13Z")
> [@](#): > > …would suppose that hot-and-bothered swabbies would sooner repair to more traditional methods of sexual gratification either by themselves or with their shipmates. That is what the ship’s boy is for, right? Bob ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051/50 "2014-10-26T01:52:57Z")
Churchill wrote that the Royal Navy owed its dominance of the 19th century seas to discipline, and that the source of that discipline was “rum, buggery, and the lash.” And of course you have Cap’n Ahab crying out in ecstasy, “Oh Pip! I suck most wondrous philosophies from Thee!” Sadly, one’s shipmates seldom look so good as Judah Ben Hur, so I bet marine mammals often caught an old salt’s eye. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sailors-have-sex-with-dugongs-manatees-siren-mermaid-myth/496051.md?page=2)