It's interesting to learn that maps didn't actually warn "Here be dragons", be it in Latin, English, or any other language. But did the people of the time believe that dragons were out there on the open seas? In a way, they wouldn't be wrong thinking that. That is, aside from questions of literal belief, a dragon is nifty shorthand for adverse sailing conditions. Say there's a spot where your ship stands a better than average change of being either capsized or becalmed. If you say that dragons are there, that's a pretty vivid way of describing the conditions.
That's not getting into the fact that there were and are some unusual creatures in the sea, some of which we may not have discovered in our own time.
As for the dragon fighting a giant lobster, I don't know what to say. Big fan of shellfish?
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