The Little Mermaid...of LIES

Today I needed a coworker to voice a script, so I asker her “Could I borrow your voice?”
She laughed and said yes, then said “Are you going to steal my voice like Ursula from The Little Mermaid?”
This lead us into a discussion about the aspects of the mermaid, or “Mer-People,” society and lifestyle.
Just for a quick refresher on the plot if it's been years since you saw The Little Mermaid, it goes like this. Ariel is a mermaid, she gets a crush on a land-based prince, she makes a pact with the Sea-Witch Ursula, gets some legs in trade for her voice so she can go on land and make the prince fall in love with her. She has three days to make him kiss her, a “Kiss of True Love,”, if she fails, she gets turned into a worm and the Sea-Witch takes her soul, and that's the end of that.

I've always thought that Ariel didn't try very hard to get that “Kiss of true love” that the evil sea-witch demanded she receive in order to get her voice back. I mean, why didn't she just write Prince Adam a letter saying

“I've been cursed by a witch, and you have to smooch me so I can get my voice back. But you can't fake it, otherwise I won't make it.”?

Then my coworker pointed out that Ariel is a mermaid, and probably can't read or write. I don't remember if she does any of that in the movie, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't. It makes sense though. She's royalty and everything, but how can we guarantee that she's literate? If you watch the movie, everyone is constantly occupied by composing highly coordinated singing and dance numbers.

They're obviously too busy to learn how to read or write

But that raises another question, what language does she speak? She can talk to crabs, fish, birds, and other mer-people, but can she speak English?

Apparently there's a few scenes in the movie where they use electricity, and the French chef uses some form of a gas stove.

Cooking food with flames like this over a wood-fire? Yeah right!

What do these things have to do with each other? I'll tell you what,

WHERE THE HELL IS THIS, AND WHAT YEAR IS IT???

I assumed it was around the 1600s in Europe or something, but gas ranges weren't invented until 1820s, and didn't become commercially viable until the 1880s. As for the Prince, who knows what language he speaks? I assumed they were from Denmark, seeing as that's where the original Little Mermaid story took place, so are the humans speaking Danish or something?

How would the little mermaid know any human language when she didn't even know what a fork was?

AKA, the Dinglehopper.

And, where would she have even learned whatever European language she'd need to speak? A school?
Yeah right! In the ocean, schools are only for fish swimming in the same direction.

There's some major plot holes in The Little Mermaid, and I have to say, that I just don't buy it anymore. And you know what the icing on the cake is? Up until the end of the movie all the ships are propelled by sails and oars. The prince and Ariel get hitched on a ship. Romantic, right? But then THIS happens!

WHO OR WHAT IS PROPELLING THAT VESSEL?