Bone Women
When people first began sending ships away from land, they mapped out safe routes. One ship, however, ignored these routes and went where it pleased. As this ship sailed into the middle of the unknown areas, days from land, they found the ocean seemed to empty into darkness, like the bottom dropped out of the earth.
They sailed around it, until they heard someone singing. As the captain heard the sound, he thought it was his wife, who was at home with their baby boy. As he looked over the edge he saw a woman, bony and pale, with horrible eyes. From the black depths, two more of these women appeared. As the captain tried to speak with them, they made a horrific screeching sound, like a thousand screaming prisoners.
Then as one, they vanished into the dark water. Two nights later, as the ship approached port, they head someone shouting from the water. It sounded like one of their crew mates, but as the crew looked, there was nothing in the water, and the man they thought cried out was safe. As they realized this, they heard screams from below deck. The men working in the hold, the galley, and those who were asleep, were being attacked by bone women.
They screamed for the remaining crew members to flee, to run for their lives, but as the crew began to run the bone women appeared, ripping through the men. Three were able to escape on one of the rowboats, but by the time they reached port and brought a ship out to help, everyone was dead. The deck was slick with blood, but none of the crew were found. The ship's crew, save the captain and two deckhands, had vanished along with the bone women.
Historical Basis
The mer depicted are most likely an offshoot of either deep mer or arctic mer. Attacks by deep mer are almost unknown, as they're unable to leave their depths in most places-- but in the seemingly eternal darkness of the winter months, they would be able to breach the surface.
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