In the dead calm misty waters of Porlier Pass, between Galiano and Valdez Islands off the east coast of Vancouver Island, a teenage commercial fisherman in a 16-foot open boat was going about his work in 1937 or 1938 when a whitish-blue sphere appeared hovering over the water several hundred yards ahead. It was 6 to 7 feet in diameter. It had a clearly defined edge. It was composed, he would say decades later, of a variety of blue tones. And it appeared to follow him. Before the encounter was over the sphere had closed to within a hundred feet of his boat — close enough to see its edge clearly, close enough to study its color gradations — and he watched it for well over five minutes before it simply dissipated. He had seen it in the same general area three or four times before. This was just the closest it had ever come. He assumed for years it was St. Elmo’s Fire. When Martin Jasek of UFO*BC showed him what St. Elmo’s Fire actually was — a faint glow visible only in darkness, attached to metal objects, produced by thunderstorm conditions — George looked at the description and said clearly: that’s not what he saw. He saw it in daylight. The water was dead calm. There was no storm. The sphere had no metal object to attach to. It followed his boat.

Date: 1937 or 1938

Sighting Time: Daytime — exact time not recorded

Day/Night: Daylight

Location: Porlier Pass, between Galiano and Valdez Islands, off the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada (approximately 17 km east-northeast of Ladysmith)

Urban or Rural: Sea — remote coastal waterway

No. of Entity(‘s): None reported

Entity Type: N/A

Entity Description: N/A

Hynek Classification: CE-I — Close Encounter of the First Kind (object observed within 500 feet of witness; came within approximately 100 feet of the boat)

Duration: Well over 5 minutes (this encounter); object seen in the same general area on 3 or 4 previous occasions

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A sphere hovering over the water in dead calm misty conditions. Appeared to follow the witness’s boat, closing from 300–400 yards to within 100 feet. Clearly defined hard edge. Composed of multiple blue tones. Eventually dissipated — did not depart at speed, simply ceased to be present.

Shape of Object(s): Sphere

Size of Object(s): 6 to 7 feet in diameter

Color of Object(s): Whitish-bluish; composed of a variety of blue tones with clearly defined edge

Distance to Object(s): Initial — approximately 300–400 yards; closest approach — approximately 100 feet

Height & Speed: Hovering over the water surface; approach speed not recorded — appeared to follow the boat gradually

Number of Witnesses: 1 — George (surname withheld); commercial fisherman, late teens at time of sighting; residing in Whitehorse, Yukon at time of report

Special Features/Characteristics: Recurring location — seen 3 or 4 times in the same general area of Porlier Pass; following behavior toward the boat; clearly defined edge and internal color gradation visible at close range; dissipation rather than departure; daylight sighting in dead calm misty conditions; St. Elmo’s Fire definitively ruled out by witness after review of that phenomenon’s characteristics; witness also in possession of Tagish Lake orb photograph slides (separate incident)

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Martin Jasek, UFO*BC Yukon Representative

Summary/Description: A teenage commercial fisherman identified as George observed a whitish-blue sphere approximately 6–7 feet in diameter hovering over the water in Porlier Pass off Vancouver Island in 1937 or 1938. The sphere appeared to follow his 16-foot open boat, closing from approximately 300–400 yards to within 100 feet. He observed a clearly defined edge and multiple blue tones. He watched it for over 5 minutes before it dissipated. He had seen the same object in the same area 3 or 4 times previously; this was the closest encounter. He initially attributed it to St. Elmo’s Fire but upon reviewing that phenomenon’s characteristics — darkness-only visibility, storm conditions required, attachment to metal objects — concluded it could not have been St. Elmo’s Fire.

Related Cases: 1937 or 1938 Confederation Park Burnaby BC | 1936 Tordenskiold Norway maritime CE-I | 1970 Tagish Lake Yukon orb photographs (UFO*BC — same witness George, same researcher Jasek)

DETAILED REPORT

The Porlier Pass case of 1937 or 1938 is one of the most carefully documented pre-modern CE-I cases in the British Columbia record, and it derives its unusual quality from two sources: the competence of the researcher who collected it and the intellectual honesty of the witness who reported it.

Martin Jasek is the UFO*BC Yukon Representative and a credible field researcher whose methodology is evident in the report itself. He did not simply record George’s account — he cross-checked it. When George offered St. Elmo’s Fire as his own explanation, Jasek provided him with a precise description of what St. Elmo’s Fire actually is: a faint blue-violet or greenish glow produced by atmospheric electrical discharge, visible only in darkness, always attached to a metal object such as a ship’s mast, requiring thunderstorm conditions to form. George read it and rejected his own hypothesis. The weather at Porlier Pass during his sighting was dead calm and overcast — no storm. It was daylight — no darkness for a faint glow to be visible. There was no metal object for the phenomenon to attach to. The sphere was freestanding, in the air, over the water. Whatever it was, it was not St. Elmo’s Fire. George’s willingness to examine and reject his own natural explanation is the case’s primary credibility marker.

The observation itself is geometrically precise. George was a working commercial fisherman in a 16-foot open boat — a man whose livelihood depended on accurate spatial judgment about water, weather, and what he could see around him. His size estimate (6 to 7 feet in diameter), his distance estimates (initially 300–400 yards, closing to 100 feet), his duration estimate (well over five minutes), and his description of the object’s optical properties (clearly defined edge, variety of blue tones) are the estimates of a professional maritime observer. He was not a casual bystander; he was an experienced 17-or-18-year-old working a solo boat in the tidal narrows of the Georgia Strait, one of the most technically demanding fishing environments on the BC coast.

The following behavior is the case’s most analytically significant element. Porlier Pass is a narrow tidal channel between two islands — the sphere appeared ahead of him, maintained its position relative to his moving boat, and closed to within 100 feet. At that distance he could clearly see the edge definition and color gradation. A natural atmospheric phenomenon of any known type does not follow a moving boat through a tidal channel. The object was not stationary; it was tracking him, or at minimum maintaining a consistent spatial relationship with his vessel across more than five minutes of observation.

The recurring location detail amplifies this. George had seen the same sphere — or a sphere of the same description — in the same general area of Porlier Pass three or four times before this encounter. The closest parallel in the pre-modern maritime record is the 1936 B’Bugia Bay Malta telescope sightings and the earlier Tordenskiold Norway encounter: objects returning to the same maritime location. Porlier Pass is a specific geography — a 17km tidal channel with strong currents between Galiano and Valdez Islands, used by commercial fishermen and recreational boaters. Whatever was hovering in those waters in the late 1930s chose that location repeatedly.

The page is currently categorized under Yukon Territory Sightings — this is a miscategorization. The event occurred in Porlier Pass, British Columbia. The witness George now resides in Whitehorse, Yukon and was interviewed there by Jasek; the Yukon categorization follows the witness’s current address rather than the event’s location. It should be recategorized under British Columbia Sightings.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Pass at Dead Calm — Porlier Pass 1937/38 and the BC Maritime Pre-Modern Record

Source Chain Assessment: Martin Jasek and UFO*BC are the gold standard of Canadian regional UAP field research. Jasek’s methodology here — interviewing a named witness, recording specific observational details with measurements, cross-checking the witness’s proposed natural explanation against scientific documentation, and reporting the witness’s own rejection of that explanation — is exactly the standard expected of credible field research. The case was reported decades after the event but the core observational details are specific, internally consistent, and have been filtered through a competent researcher’s critical process. This is the strongest source chain of the three BC cases in the 1937–38 BC cluster.

St. Elmo’s Fire Elimination: The St. Elmo’s Fire debunking built into the report is analytically important beyond its immediate conclusion. It demonstrates that George was not a credulous witness who saw something and immediately filed it as unexplained; he tried for decades to explain it conventionally, settled on what seemed the most plausible natural candidate, and only revised that assessment when presented with the precise physical requirements of that candidate. A witness who self-examines and self-corrects is a more reliable witness than one who reports without attempting conventional explanation.

Recurring Location and Possible Operational Pattern: The same sphere seen 3–4 times in the same general area of Porlier Pass over an unspecified period is the case’s most underanalyzed element. Recurring object presence in a specific maritime geography — a tidal channel with strong currents and consistent commercial fishing activity — raises the question of whether the object was associated with the location itself (subsurface feature, geological anomaly, recurring atmospheric condition not yet identified) or with the activity in the location (a fishing boat, a specific time of year, a specific set of weather conditions). No evidence supports any of these hypotheses, but the pattern is worth noting in the archive.

Category Correction: The page is filed under Yukon Territory Sightings, following the witness’s current residential address in Whitehorse. The event location is Porlier Pass, British Columbia. This should be corrected to British Columbia Sightings on the live site.

George watched the whitish-blue sphere close to within 100 feet of his 16-foot boat in the dead calm mist of Porlier Pass and studied it for well over five minutes before it dissipated. He had seen it there before — three or four times in the same waters. He assumed for decades it was St. Elmo’s Fire, and when Martin Jasek showed him what St. Elmo’s Fire actually required, he looked at the description and said that wasn’t it. Daylight, dead calm, no storm, no metal mast, following behavior, clearly defined edge, multiple blue tones, 6 to 7 feet across. The case is Unexplained. The sphere came within 100 feet and then simply ceased to exist in the air over Porlier Pass, and George has been the only one to document it.