I moved to a one-room cabin on Keats Island October, 1967. Since the cabin was meant for
summer use only and hadn't been used much even then, there was a great deal to do to get
ready for winter. When darkness came I fell into my bunk dog-tired, with hardly a glance
out the window.
The top
bunk where I slept was alongside a window I could look out of without raising my head.
January 27 the cold woke me at 6 a.m. It was still dark and stars were glittering. As I
looked out at them, a very bright white star moved into view from over the roof. It made
two wide spirals down, zig-zagged parallel to the earth a couple of times, then stopped
for about ten minutes. It then took off at great speed, turning yellow, then pink, as it
faded in the distance. It was very high during all this and when it took off (going east
over Bowen Island) it did not seem to be following the earth's curvature but to be going
off into space. This had to be a flying saucer or UFO and I was delighted to have seen it.
This tiny cabin on Keats Is., here vacant and boarded up, was
where Miss Niblett lived for several months before UFO activity drove her away. She has
since moved to Gibsons on B.C. mainland.
I decided
to keep a lookout from then on. The cabin was a perfect spot for watching -- on a rocky
point about 65 feet above the water. The front window gave a wide view of sky, water and
small islands about two miles away. To give a more complete picture, perhaps I should
explain that most of the cabins were at Eastbourne, a good mile away. My cabin was a
thousand feet from where the road ended and couldn't be seen from there because of a hump
in the road. There was a scattering of tall firs and cedars to right and left and up the
steep rocky hill that rose directly behind the cabin. Near the top of this hill there was
a relatively flat, cleared space that once had been a church camp ground. From Labor Day
to the end of May, I was the only resident on the west side of the island. Few visited
their cottages because the government dock at Eastbourne was removed for the winter and
the water supply pumps weren't in operation.
The very
next evening (Jan. 28) I saw another UFO from the front window. It travelled very slowly
over the water from south to north -- only a few hundred feet up. This one seemed to be a
long dark body with dim red and yellow lights at both ends. It weaved from side to side,
stopping two or three times with its lights dimming almost out. It wasn't at all like the
first one. I was delighted to see another so soon.
Next
afternoon two men in neat, dark coveralls came down the path to the cabin, saying they
were Hydro men and how surprised they were to find someone living here. They asked if I
needed any help, which I did, as I had some new stovepipes I hadn't been able to put up
myself because of all the elbows. While I held the pipes steady inside, one of the men got
on the roof and added the new pipes. I could hear the man on the ground directing him and
the one on the roof would answer, "Yes, Master." When the pipes were together I
went out and told the man on the roof not to bother with the guy wires since I could fix
them easily myself. He looked inquiringly at the man on the ground, who told him to finish
it.
They then came in for tea.
I asked
what their work area was, and the 'boss' said they checked wires from Powell River --
which seemed a hell of a long route for two men, and I said so. They in turn asked if I
liked living here, did I go hunting and didn't I get frightened at times? Asked what there
was to be afraid of, the men looked at one another before the 'boss' finally answered,
"Oh, things!"
Although
the men were friendly enough, they were a little 'stiff' and just not the kind to discuss
UFOs with, so I didn't mention them. After they left (nearly dark) I wondered how they
knew anyone WAS here since the cabin couldn't be seen from the road (and just barely from
the water if you knew where to look). The stove was out when they arrived, so there was no
smoke from the chimney.
Feb. 14
From the window -- another UFO in the early evening, travelling about the same path and
speed as the second.
Feb. 17.
Woke about 6 a.m. again (still dark) and saw one travelling inland over Keats from north
to south. It was below the tree tops most of the time as it went up the hill behind the
cabin where it was lost to view. This was definitely a long, dark body with two or three
yellow and red lights on each end. As with the others, the lights would dim to almost out
now and then.
I was
feeling uneasy and less enthusiastic about seeing these things now. They were definitely
interested in the ground and must be picking up things --? I just might end up as a
'sample'! I recalled a TV interview I'd seen a few years back. An American couple claimed
they had been taken inside a UFO and given a thorough physical examination. They were made
to forget it all when set free, but hypnosis made them remember it again.
Feb. 21.
Had just walked to the front window. The sun was almost down. Sky and water were pink.
Something about 60 feet above the water, with 'frosted' yellow lights at the sides and a
bright red one in the middle, slid over from front left to my rocks, then back again
without turning around. It slid up and back as if on a rail. My knees turned watery and my
stomach filled with butterflies! I realized I'd seen several of those same things many
times, but through trees, as I sleepily observed them from my bunk window. Because they
were over water I'd presumed they were boats, though I did wonder what kind of boat since
they seemed to maneuver so easily and silently. They would go back and forth between the
beach, a little way to the left of the cabin, and the point where my cabin was.
As much
daylight as there was, I didn't see the body of the machine, just the arrangement of
lights. Those I'd seen from the bunk window had no discernible bodies either, but only
what I took to be mast lights. The frosted yellow bulbs seemed about grape fruit size and
reflected on nothing.
Another
thing I'd seen from my bunk the same time as those 'boats' was a bright flash of light
that occasionally appeared slightly above the ground, between path and water. The ground
was too rough and brambly for someone to be walking there at night, as first there seemed
to be, so I decided it was a momentary beam from one of the boats. My door was locked
anyway and I was too tired to care if someone was prowling around in the dark.
After
seeing the thing slide up and away again, it took sometime to get over my fright.
Curiosity finally made me brave enough to venture out to the edge of the rocks where I
could get a wider, unobstructed view. On the other side of Ragged Island and more than
half hidden by it appeared to be a big boat well lit up with neon lights. (No binoculars,
unfortunately.) As I wondered, "Why there?" three balls of scintillating light
flew up from it, yellow to amber. Hard to guess how big -- maybe four feet in diameter.
Eventually there were five or six of them, some off to Bowen Island, others to Keats,
Pasley and other Islands. I kept glancing behind me for fear one of the lights would get
between me and the cabin, cutting off retreat!
The balls
travelled slowly over tree tops dropping down amongst them or to the water's edge. Every
once in a while one would go back behind Ragged Island, although the bright ship had
disappeared --under water? A tugboat rounded the corner quite close to shore, hauling a
barge. Over the tug was one of the balls of light, and one over the barge as well. I
wanted to share this sighting so badly with someone it was tantalizing not to be able to
yell at the tugboat men to look. But it was making too much noise and, of course, no one
was on deck anyway. The balls of light stayed with the tug only a matter of seconds before
peeling off exactly together --one going to Bowen, the other to Pasley.
Running
back to the cabin, I locked the door. This was all too much! This was a nest of UFOs! Oh,
if I could only tell someone about it, but I had no phone and the public phone was in
Eastbourne, through all that dark where I might bump into 'something'. How could I have
been so blindly unobservant as to miss all this before? In moving to Keats I had probably
moved right into their midst from the beginning! Now I realized that the first star-like
UFO had come closer not just to have a look at our planet. They knew 'George and His Gang'
were somewhere in this area of Earth. The zig-zagging may have been to locate their
communications beam then, finding it, stop to talk.
Next day I
phoned people who had boats -- one on Bowen Island and the other on the mainland --and
tried to get them to come over and see these things.
But the
water was too rough to come over or they didn't have time, or the real reason -- they
thought I was probably mistaken about the whole thing anyway. Must be some new kind of
aircraft being tested, one man insisted.
Not
knowing anyone at Gibsons at the time, I phoned the newspaper there and asked if they'd
had any UFO reports. A bored voice said, "Not lately."
With
restraint I told him there were quite a few flying around here these nights, and he should
send someone over to have a look. He wasn't interested and said I should get in touch with
Rev. Mr. Willis who was also caretaker of the Baptist camp on Keats. Having met the
minister once, I thought he was the type to pooh-pooh such things but found out too late
this was not the case.
March 5.
There was no one else to turn to so I walked over to the Baptist camp to see the Willis'.
I got there in time to see them pulling away from the dock on their way to Gibsons.
What about
the RCMP? They might be interested, and there was a public phone at the dock.
Knowing it
would be easy for them to give me a brush-off if I told them about UFOs over the phone, I
told them instead that there were prowlers about and would they please come over?
On board
their boat and under the cool gaze of the two young policemen, I felt rather foolish. To
them I'd be just a nutty woman seeing things. I heard much later that the RCMP had
received several UFO reports but these men didn't tell me about it to make me feel less
foolish about mine.
Since the
UFOs usually didn't put in an appearance when there were boats in the immediate area, I
asked the police to leave their boat at the Baptist camp and walk over. They said they
would come the next evening. Late the next afternoon I saw the police boat go by --they
had apparently decided not to walk. They must have hung around during the evening for I
saw no UFO.
A few days
later when I was on my way to Bowen Island in a water taxi, the police boat happened to be
in the vicinity. They drew close and told me the flashing red light I saw was the buoy
somewhere at the south end of Popham Island. It was not the time and place to argue about
it.
For
several nights the weather was stormy so I stayed inside, going the round of windows
occasionally. Because our aircraft was grounded by poor weather I expected theirs to be,
too, but it didn't seem to make any difference to them.
There were
lots of UFO reports on the air that winter (late 1966 and early 1967 was an 'invasion'
period --Ed.). Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver I remember especially.
Around 10
o'clock on one of those blustery nights I heard a sound like an enraged hornet
approaching. It seemed to hover close over the cabin, move away, then back again. The
sound of a large hornet flying round is enough to give anyone goose pimples. Combined with
a stormy night it was almost too much! When it seemed overhead my eyes were riveted to the
ceiling, expecting something to come boring through the roof. I was too frightened to even
take a peek out the window at it.
For at
least two weeks that 'hornet' was around, but at a distance. It was a bright, white ball
(as far as I could make out) and it went back and forth in a small area in front of Ragged
Island. Sometimes it flew to an area in front of the beach, to go back and forth there.
That stormy night I first heard it, it probably was over the water and not overhead, as
I'd thought. It surely must have been taking something from the ground under the water to
stay in those same spots so long.
A corridor
of trees had been cut from Andy's beach to the old camp grounds on the hill above. Many
times one or two 'kettle' type UFOs would go up there from over the beach, flying lower
than the tree tops.
These
'kettles' might have been about 20 feet wide, had a rather high dome and narrow rim. I
could usually make out a thing like an aerial, as well as a yellow light, on top. A green
light was about halfway down, a red and three or four yellowish lights across the bottom.
They always travelled rather slowly, and when they got to the old campground, would drop
straight down as if landing. Because of land conformation and underbrush they would be
lost to sight when and if they did land.
I never
saw them taking off again from the campground, although I watched for half an hour or more
a couple of times to see how long they stayed there.
Daytime I
often went up to look around. The thick mat of wet leaves was a bit scuffed here and there
and there were holes an inch or so wide punched in. One set made a perfect square of about
three feet. But there were a lot of deer around and I wasn't sure that deer and possibly
mice had not made these scuffs and holes. What I was really hoping for was an object they
might accidentally have dropped, but I guess they're not too careless. I also looked for
digging, burning or some unusual disturbance in the area to give some idea what they were
doing up there so long, but noticed nothing. The woods beyond were gray and uninviting, so
I must admit I didn't do much exploring there.
Strangely,
the other kinds of UFOs didn't go up there as far as I know, except possibly the long one
I mentioned earlier. From what I've seen, it seems to me that all the different UFOs
performed some special function or did some specific job.
"Kettle" UFOs flew along this corridor.
One night
as I was standing out on the rocks one of these 'kettle' UFOs stopped to one side just
above the tall trees. Instead of a green light there was a not very bright white light in
its place and it seemed to be pointed right at me. The machine tilted down in my direction
also. Daringly, I blinked my flashlight at it. There was no answering blink. It made them
seem unfriendly or terribly impersonal, which frightened me considerably and made me run
back in the cabin and lock myself in.
Another
night as I watched outside, a bright flashing red light came from the south following the
shoreline. It was about the same height above the water as I was standing (60-65 feet).
Passing a few yards out in front of me, it suddenly turned in and went down a short
distance to my left. There was a distinct thump but it was out of sight. Then came humming
buzzing sounds in short bursts.
I could
easily have gone down the rocks the short distance required to look around the bushes and
possibly see what they were doing but was afraid they wouldn't like it. Even back in the
cabin I could hear the humming buzzes it was making.
Next day I
went to look at the rocks where I presumed it had been. They were covered with a thick mat
of moss, and two chunks of about a foot each had been knocked off. The drill holes I
thoroughly expected to find were not visible to me. Either they covered their work up
exceedingly well or I was blind to anything that might have been unusual in the rocks.
At the
beginning of March I moved my sleeping-bag to the long table by the front window so I'd
have a chance to catch what might be going on later at night. I woke up to see a luminous
golf-ball sized light moving three to four feet above the path directly in front. I
thought it was a deer with something phosphorescent on its tail. I shone the flashlight
out the window but there was nothing to be seen. A night or two later I woke again to see
the golf-ball light, this time out the back window. I presumed it was outside until it
moved beyond the window to the end of the room. It then went past the window again to the
other end of the room, then back to the window and out. The window was open but screened.
During its trip I turned on the electric light but it wasn't visible with the light on.
I was more
annoyed than frightened to see that thing in the cabin, for I felt it was some kind of
snooping device and angrily thought they could have found out what they wanted by less
scary means.
As the
weeks passed I began to feel the UFOs weren't going to hurt me, so I got up the courage to
sit under the verandah of the vacant cabin next to mine overhanging the steep bank in
front of the left-hand beach. I wanted to see why so many of the UFOs appeared to be going
there and established myself under the verandah well before dark in hopes they wouldn't
know I was there.
Before
full dark three UFOs rose up behind Ragged Island with a few minutes interval between each
one. About halfway to the beach they turned right or left and did not come all the way
over at all.
I got a
fairly good look at the small red flasher as it passed to the left, faintly outlined
against the still light sky. Crazy as it seems, the body looked like a big barrel with
stubby wings like rounded ears. There was a bright flashing red light about the size of a
car headlamp in the middle. It rode tilted forward and rolled a little from side to side
as if the red light was what it saw by. (There were no other lights.)
In its July, 1972 issue, 'UFO Investigator' published by NICAP
carried this diagram of a barrel-shaped object seen by four boys in New Hampshire. Its
shape and flashing red light correspond with features of objects seen by Bernice Niblett
five years earlier. (Reprinted courtesy of 'UFO Investigator.')
Another
coming up from behind Ragged Island was like spinning pink steam -- a reflection of the
pink sunset no doubt. When it got above the dark trees of the island behind, I could no
longer see it.
A little
later a big white light like the 'hornet', but making no sound, flew over with an
up-and-down motion the way some small birds fly. It didn't come all the way to the beach,
either, and disappeared somewhere to the right.
Looking from Cabin toward Bowen Island.
Time
dragged on as it got darker and darker. My nerves were all keyed up for something to
happen, but nothing did. My cabin seemed to be farther away in the black night and I began
to get spooked. As I was deserting the watch, I glanced up at the verandah I'd been
sitting under. A foot or so above the railing was the golf-ball light. I shone the
flashlight at it -- nothing! Light out -- there it was, unmoving!
One clear
evening as I stood out on the rocks, no UFO was around, apparently because a tug was
between Ragged and Pasley. It was turning a very large boom around. A point of interest
about the tug was that one of its mast-lights kept blinking in an irregular pattern -- a
most unusual kind of circuit, if that's what caused it to blink. After the boom
straightened itself out, a 'red flasher' flew up from the boat. It flew to Bowen at its
usual leisurely pace. At this point in time I was almost beyond surprise at seeing a UFO
fly up from a tug.
Other
things along that line had me wondering...
Several
times a 'red flasher' came up from somewhere south or Keats or the Pasley group and went
to Bowen Island. It landed very close to a lit-up house on the side of the hill.
In
daylight I tried to get a better look at the place from Eastbourne. It was a white house
in a small cleared area. Whoever lived there must have been the only winter residents on
that side of Bowen, for there was no other light except on an occasional weekend.
Mr.
Wainwright, who operated the water taxi and marina in a cove further south on Bowen, knew
who lived in that white house, when I asked. The man who lived there was a travelling
salesman. How could UFOs keep landing in his yard without his knowing? Why were they going
there?
May 2. Had
been on the north beach collecting bark. On my way home along the road I saw two men
coming up the path from my cabin. One was the 'boss' Hydro man in his neat coveralls. The
other was a different, younger man of about 19-20. As I entered the path, the boss man
indicated with his hand for the young man to get behind him. They got well off the path
and waited for me, the young man a little behind his boss. The fellow stared at me as if I
was some kind of freak. (I'm quite ordinary looking, really.)
The 'boss'
said he'd been thinking of me and had come to see if I was all right. After replying that
I was fine etc., and because of the young man's intense stare, I remarked that he had a
new helper. The 'boss' smiled at the young fellow with a protective air and merely said,
"Yes."
When I
asked the young man how he liked his new job, he seemed to take the question quite
seriously. Without smiling and with a little bow, he replied "Fine."
Much to my
regret I didn't ask them to tea, but I knew the stove would be out, the cabin was in a
mess and I was dog tired.
Next Day.
Went to the road to pick up some bark I'd dropped there. I saw a jeep slowly approaching.
When it came to the end of the road it stopped and four men jumped out. They were Hydro
men inspecting lines from the moving jeep. Very human, carelessly dressed, workaday men!
None in coveralls. The boss wasn't obviously so. They expressed no surprise at seeing me
there, no concern or any particular interest.
I told
them two of their men already had been around the day before, inspecting the lines. They
assured me yesterday's men weren't Hydro men, that somebody had been 'pulling my leg.' I
described the former men to make sure and also told them they had been around before.
These men
didn't know them.
I found
out, too, that the jeep was parked at the Baptist camp for the use of the meter-reader,
telephone repairman and Hydro repairmen.
The other
'Hydro' men hadn't come in a jeep.
I should
have asked these real Hydro men if they checked lines all the way to Powell River, as the
'boss' had said on the first visit, but I didn't think of it soon enough.
The
possibilities as to who the first men were dawned as something I'd been too dense to see
before. What with seeing a 'red flasher' leave a tug and others going to a house on Bowen
Island, I think a number of UFO people are among us... and they include, those phony
'Hydro' men.
Every
human is different. We expect it, so when we exchange a word or two with someone whose
phraseology is different or who has an accent, we only wonder what country he's from, not
what planet. Maybe that's a mistake.
* *
This account which started months ago as a brief note from Miss Niblett and was enlarged
upon at our request grew into such an extraordinary story that for a while we were on the
brink of disbelief. Miss Niblett expected we would be. '(Won't blame you if you don't
believe it," she wrote in sending the first part. "It gets hairier as it goes
along, too."
And, while
we read on goggle-eyed, so it did. In different circumstances we might have concluded by
throwing it away, even though fascinated. Our policy is to reject dubious material, no
matter how sensational.
But
contradictory though it may sound we could not class Miss Niblett's seemingly incredible
experience as "dubious." For one thing, she never tried to "sell" us.
After that first brief note she agreed to continue in return for only a few back copies of
Canadian UFO Report. Also she had trouble putting the story down at all. As she said,
"Writing and trying to edit all this material without a typewriter is a very time
consuming and tedious job!"
A still
more telling point was the ring of the story itself. Not only did the writer's phrasing
carry the sound of truth, but so did her description of strange things observed. In some
cases we have seen similar descriptions in only the most obscure reports, and it is our
business to collect such reports. It is not Miss Niblett's.
But the
final persuader was in meeting Miss Niblett, speaking to other witnesses she had listed*,
and hearing at first hand her tale of a year's lonely adventure that became an ordeal from
which she was eventually forced to escape. Although it had happened four years before,
there was no doubt those mystifying, often frightening events still lived with her -- and
to judge by the restrained intensity of her description, there was no doubt either that
she was explaining exactly what she heard and saw.
If there
is any variation from the truth in this story, it can only be a matter of interpretation.
For Miss Niblett the objects she saw and persons she met led to the conclusion she was in
a nest of UFO activity. For someone else they might have added up to something less
mysterious.
But our
vote is for Miss Niblett --and if we are right, here is a person who has had a contact
with the UFO riddle which, considering the time it lasted and the frequency of incidents,
is probably in a class by itself.
Yet not
for a moment does she pretend to be a contactee. Although she had unusual, strikingly
vivid dreams following her experience, she has no message of universal importance to
impart. Instead she talks as a woman who was badly frightened but is still curious about
what happened. We think that reaction is the believable one.
When we
asked why there were no pictures, Miss Niblett said in the first place she had no camera
and secondly, because all the activity occurred at dusk or later (a perverse but common
UFO habit) there was virtually no chance to use one anyway.
If the
lack of a camera seems strange, it should be emphasized that Miss Niblett's year of
isolation in the wildnerness was precisely just that. Everything she had in her tiny cabin
was carried there by hand over a long country road and another exhausting stretch of an
almost invisible path through brush. There at times even the essentials were lacking. In
mid-winter when the pump was closed off, she had to fetch her water by bucket. Although
the island is a popular summer spot close to shipping lanes and within easy ferry distance
north of Vancouver, we had the impression around that small cabin that we were at the end
of nowhere.
Besides
all that, Miss Niblett is not a camera bug anyway and preferred we not take her picture.
So we must fill that gap by explaining she is tall, slender and of young middle-age. The
only reason her picture is not here is because she wished it that way.
Miss
Niblett now lives at Gibsons, B.C.
-------------
*Two with sightings of particular interest were of Mrs. Ewart McMynn and Mrs. Anne Prewer.
In her
house at Gibsons Mrs. McMynn was awakened by an "unaccountable something in the dead
of night" in the late fall, 1966 (about a year before Miss Niblett moved to Keats
Island). Looking out her window, she saw an object "red like fire" speeding in
her direction from the hills on Keats. As it descended rapidly, she noted it was circular
"up in the center and about 20 feet across, with a mist around it like steam."
It shot down so close to the water she thought it was going to hit a nearby public beach.
But it continued its headlong flight close to shore until it was lost from view.
Mrs.
Prewer, who lives at Grantham's Landing just outside Gibsons, had her sighting one evening
in early summer, 1971, when a light through the window caught her attention. Pausing to
look, she saw a light "bigger than an airplane" flying over Keats. The light was
dullish white, round, and she thought she detected another white light underneath.
Suddenly, over the Baptist camp mentioned in Miss Niblett's account, the light
"stopped dead" and blinked out. The witness recalled the object not only looked
unlike a plane but was travelling in an opposite direction to those usually seen in the
vicinity.
For
another sighting over Keats Island, see the letter by Mrs. G. E. Webb in the Letters
section. Mrs. Webb wrote long before our visit to Keats and obviously had no idea we were
planning to carry this article.
UFO OVER BLAZING FISHBOAT
In case
Bernice Niblett's reference in the preceding article to a 'red flasher' flying from a
tugboat sounds too unbelievable all by itself, we refer readers to a letter by associate
editor Brian Cannon in vol. 1, no. 3. Here Cannon lists several unexplained marine
incidents which, reported in the public press, happened in those same coastal waters in
roughly the same period.
But 10
years earlier in the nearby Strait of Juan de Fuca there occurred a marine disaster even
more mystifying. Here there was startling closeness between a strange flying object, seen
by a ship's entire crew, and the stricken vessel. Just as strange was the fact that the
doomed boat was never identified. Was it part of the UFO domain about which Miss Niblett
speculates?
The
incident was recently reviewed in the Victoria (B.C.) Daily Colonist by marine historian
T.W. Paterson, who wrote:
"The
strange case of the "KC-13" goes back to November, 1957, when the Japanese
freighter Meitetsu Maru steamed slowly through the darkness in calm seas, 30 miles off the
west coast of Vancouver Island, For hours the Maru proceeded without sign of another ship
when, suddenly, a wavering tower of light attracted her lookout's attention. Immediately
ordering increased speed, Capt. Ohuchi headed for the scene, some four miles off, and, as
his ship neared, he could see the blazing remains of a fishing boat. But it was not the
fiery wreckage which held his eyes captive. It was the glowing, circular white light that
hovered over the wreck at which they stared, hypnotized. As their freighter inched closer,
the eerie light retreated swiftly in a great, upward arc, vanishing into the dark skies.
"After
unsuccessfully searching for survivors, the Japanese radioed the alarm. Because the dying
vessel was ablaze from bow to stern, Capt. Ohuchi make no attempt to have his men board
and continued on to Vancouver as the United States Coast Guard and aircraft of the RCAF
began an intensive search of the area. Aided by unseasonally fine weather, both forces
covered more than 6,000 square miles of ocean.
"However,
although numerous fishing vessels were in the area, none had picked up any survivors. Only
one, in fact, had reported an incident which could have had any connection with the burned
vessel: That report mentioned the strange white light which the Japanese merchantmen had
seen, arching upward from the sea.
"All
that the vast, two-day search uncovered of the vessel described as ... of about 50 tons
gross and about 70 feet long, was a medium-sized gasoline tank to which were attached some
pieces of charred wood.
"In
the way of further identification, all Capt. Ohuchi had been able to offer authorities
were the figures "KC-13-ac" on the side of the burning hull.
"Fifteen
years after, the mystery of KC-13 remains just that. For no Canadian or American fishing
vessels had been reported as missing or overdue at the time of the loss, and the figures
given by Capt. Ohuchi did not correspond with numbers of fishboats of either nation. The
only tangible clue, the gas tank, was forwarded to the RCMP in Vancouver and eventually
identified as having come from the Nanaimo fishing craft Jo-Joe which went missing off
Vancouver Island's west coast on Oct. 30, 1957.
"At
first thought to be a company listing, KC-13-ac has never been identified. RCMP officials,
when contacted in 1963, said they had no record of the white light. Up to that date, the
Jo-Joe's owner had not turned up, and it had been assumed that he was lost with his boat.
There was no mention of others having been aboard.
"Today,
in 1972, the original questions are still to be answered: What was the cause of the fire
that destroyed a 70-foot craft in minutes? And, even more intriguing, what was the
mysterious white light that hovered over the scene, only to zoom away at the Meitetsu
Maru's chance arrival?"
STRANGE RADAR SIGNAL
The latest
west coast marine incident to come to our attention, while not dramatic, gave the witness
an eye-popping figure as to the speed of the object.
It
happened early one foggy morning last August as fisherman L. G. Swenson of Burnaby, B.C.,
was navigating carefully along the west coast of Vancouver Island with a close eye on his
radar set. Suddenly a strange blip appeared in the upper left quadrant of his screen.
"It
was something above the water, no more than 100 feet, about three miles away," he
said. "It must have been a solid object, probably metallic, to give a bright blip
like that, and it was stationary."
To get a
better idea of distance, Swenson changed the range on his set. In the three or four
seconds it took to find the object again, it had moved right across the screen.
"That
meant it had moved just about eight miles," he said. In other words, at least 7,000
m.p.h. from dead start to dead stop.
Then
abruptly the blip disappeared.
LETTERS
Sir:
I live at Grantham's Landing just opposite Keats Island. A couple of years ago my husband
and I were sitting in our living-room in the after-dark with just the light of the fire.
A sudden
light in the sky over Keats caught my eye and I went to the window to look further. I
called to my husband to come also and we stood for several minutes and watched a strange
object perfectly motionless in the sky. Difficult to estimate the size of this object but
it seemed very Large and perfectly round and bright golden -- looked just like the moon
but the moon was also there in another part of the sky.
We stood
entranced, wondering what this strange object could be, when it moved slowly and
disappeared behind a larger hill. I heard a couple of days later that someone in North
Vancouver had witnessed the same object that same evening.
For what
it is worth, it certainly wasn't like a balloon or anything else we have ever seen.
Mrs. G.E. Webb.
Grantham's Landing, B.C.
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