The artwork in this video’s thumbnail was generously created by the brilliant Hannah
Parker, an American artist whose work you can find by clicking the link in the description.
In his 1872 adventure novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, French novelist Jules Verne
wrote: “The human mind enjoys impressive visions
of unearthly creatures.
Now then, the sea is precisely their best medium, the only setting suitable for the
breeding and growing of such giants- next to which such land animals as elephants or
rhinoceroses are mere dwarves.
The liquid masses support the largest known species of mammals and perhaps conceal mollusks
of incomparable size or crustaceans too frightful to contemplate…
Why not?
Formerly, in prehistoric days, land animals… were built on a gigantic scale.
Our Creator cast them using a colossal mold that time has gradually made smaller.
With its untold depths, couldn’t the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from
another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous
alteration?
Couldn’t the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining varieties of these titanic
species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?”
Many residents of Canada’s West Coast, both past and present, certainly seem to think
so, and with good reason.
Long before Spanish, English, or Russian sails first appeared off the shores of what is now
British Columbia, First Nations throughout the Pacific Northwest told stories about massive
marine monsters endowed with preternatural abilities which ruled the waves between Vancouver
Island and Haida Gwaii.
The Tlingit of northwestern British Columbia and the Alaskan Panhandle, for example, told
stories about the gonaqadet, or ‘sea wolf’, who lived in a den at the bottom of the sea,
on whose physical appearance and essential nature not all storytellers were in agreement;
some anthropologists described the gonaqadet as an enormous animal shaped like a longhouse,
which was greatly feared for its ability to devour entire canoes, crew and all; while
others described it as a benevolent creature with sharp teeth, claws, fins, long ears,
and a long tail, which brings good luck to all who see it.
Further to the south, the Bella Bella and Tsimshian of the Great Bear Rainforest told
stories about the Sk’amck, a huge water monster which bit off human arms and legs
and swallowed people whole, and believed in the existence of a fish with preternatural
power resembling a double-headed salmon.
Undoubtedly, the richest collection of legendary sea monsters endemic to Canada’s Pacific
Northwest is that which populates the traditional folklore of Vancouver Island.
The Kwakwaka’wakw, who once ruled the Island’s northeastern shores from Cape Scott to Campbell
River, told tales about monstrous halibut, ferocious underwater birds, and vicious grinning
sharks with long tongues and bull-like heads.
The Nootka, who held sway over the Island’s western coast, believed in a sea spirit called
kaptca, who appeared as a drowned giantess floating in the ocean, her long hair streaming
all around her; those who managed to pluck one of her hairs from the water would receive
wealth and power thereafter, but none who caught a glimpse of her face lived to tell
the tale.
All native residents of Vancouver Island, including the Northern and Central Coast Salish
tribes who occupied the Island’s southeastern quadrant, told stories about two specific
types of oceanic entities, namely Komokwa, the generous and wealthy Chief of the Sea,
and Sisiutl, a giant two-headed amphibious sea serpent saturated with preternatural power,
said to be the mortal enemy of the Thunderbird.
Sightings of huge unidentified sea creatures are still reported from time to time in the
waters off Vancouver Island.
The most famous subject of such accounts is an alleged sea serpent called Cadborosaurus,
or “Caddy,” who is said to occasionally rear his horse-like head and display his serpentine
trunk in Cadboro Bay on the southern tip of Vancouver Island not far from the University
of Victoria.
Since at least the 1940s, newspapers across British Columbia have recognized Caddy as
one of the province’s three classic monsters, alongside the Sasquatch of the coastal mountains
and the Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan.
While this author certainly intends to give Caddy his due in some future work, this piece
will explore three lesser-known monster sightings made in some of the more obscure bays and
sounds off Vancouver Island, all of them from the archives of Gary Mangiacopra.
The first of these reports was submitted by 41-year-old George W. Saggers and published
in the Summer 1948 issue of the magazine Fate.
The author, who hailed from the municipality of Ucluelet, on the western shore of Vancouver
Island, was a commercial fisherman who spent most of his waking hours at sea, having commenced
his career at the age of 13 in his father’s rowboat.
At the time of writing, Saggers was the proud owner of what he described as “one of the
most up-to-date commercial trolling boats, equipped with radio-telephone, direction finder
and photo-electric pilot.”
One day in November 1947, George Saggers left Ucluelet harbour about an hour before daylight,
as was his custom.
When he had reached a point about two miles off shore, southwest of a landmark called
the Amphitrite Point Lighthouse, he lowered his fishing poles, slowed the engine, put
his lines and hooks on the water, and slowly headed out to sea.
After trolling for about a mile, Saggers got a bite on one of his lines and reeled in what
proved to be a large salmon.
Just as he prepared to haul the fish into his boat, Saggers was beset by a peculiar
sensation.
“A sort of shiver went up and down my spine,” he wrote, “and I had a feeling that I was
being watched.
Immediately, I looked all around.
“On my port side, about 150 feet away was a head and neck raised about four feet above
the water, with two jet black eyes about three inches across and protruding from the head
like a couple of buns, staring at me.
“I just didn’t look real.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
The head seemed to be the same size as the neck, about eighteen inches through and of
a mottle color of gray and light brown.
“This particular morning there was quite a ground swell with a chop; which meant that
anything floating on or close to the surface would certainly do a lot of tossing about.
But this sea monster was very steady, which only proved to me that there was plenty of
it under the water.
“If it had made one move toward the boat, I was prepared to run into the cabin and slam
the door shut.
It had a look I distrusted greatly.
“After it looked at me for one full minute, it turned its head straight away from me,
showing the back of its head and its neck.
It appeared to have some sort of mane, which seemed like bundles of warts rather than hair.
It looked something like a mattress would, if split down the middle allowing rolls of
cotton batting to protrude.
The color of the mane was dark brown.
“Then the monster went down out of sight, moving so quietly that it never left a ripple
or disturbance of any kind in the water.
“My name is George W. Saggers.
I live at Ucluelet, B.C., Vancouver Island, Canada.
What I have told you is true.”
Another sea serpent, this one answering to the general description of Caddy, appeared
off the eastern shores of Vancouver Island on February 24th, 1954, just north of the
city of Parksville.
About thirty witnesses claimed to have seen the strange sea creature basking in the sun
about 380 yards offshore.
Mr. W. Baldwin, a resident of the nearby community of Errington, had the best view of the spectacle,
watching it from shore through field glasses.
“I never saw anything like it,” he told a reporter for the Nanaimo Daily News, describing
the creature as having a head that was both reptilian and horse-like, and a long tapering
tail.
He estimated the creature to measure between 30 to 40 feet in length, and described it
as having four humps.
After watching the creature disport itself for about an hour, six locals- including Arthur
Stewart and his brother, of nearby Horne Lake; and Chuck Ball of the proximate community
of Dashwood- approached the monster in a rowboat, hoping to capture it on camera.
Apparently startled by their approach, the sea serpent submerged and shortly reappeared
on the other side of the rowboat.
“Then it made a beeline for them,” Baldwin told reporters, “but submerged for good
in about fifty yards.”
Thoroughly spooked, the six adventurers made a hasty retreat to shore.
The third and final sea serpent sighting we will examine in this piece took place in 1928
in Alert Bay, a piece of ocean nestled in the crook of Cormorant Island near the northern
end of Vancouver Island.
This sighting was alluded to in an article in the July 19th, 1963 issue of the Vancouver
Sun, written by a female columnist from Ladysmith, BC, who wrote under the penname ‘Mamie Maloney’.
The witness was Maloney’s own husband, T.R.
Boggs, who claimed to have seen a camel-like head raised five or six feet out of the water,
gliding against the waves, “with definite humps occasionally breaking the surface for
50 or so feet behind.”
Boggs was purportedly reluctant to tell his story to anyone he did not know well, “defeated
by the let’s-humor-him-he’s-so-sane-in-other-respects looks [his tale] invariably invoked.”
One night, while reading in bed, Boggs allegedly found the explanation for his sighting in
the book Vancouver Island’s West Coast: 1762-1962, by George Nicholson.
This book contains a two-page chapter which attempts to provide a conventional explanation
for sightings of Caddy and other sea monsters off the shores of Vancouver Island.
“The apparition so often observed off Cadboro Bay…” the chapter begins, “is no sea
serpent; although to the novice, that’s what it sometimes looks like.”
The chapter proceeds to explain that the sea serpent is really an optical illusion produced
by a bull sea lion leading his harem across the water.
“The bull always leads,” the article explains, “every so often breaking surface to hold
his head at least three feet above water and look around as if to see if any strange bachelor
bull might be skulking around…
The big head, high on a thick neck, seen unexpectedly and only for a brief time, could, with the
help of a little imagination, be described as that of a camel, horse, the legendary dragon,
the mythical sea serpent, or a combination of them all.
“So much for the head and neck…
Now for the humps or coils.
The females always follow close behind, invariably in line, and for some unexplained reason they
never raise their heads out of the water…
The fierce looking bewhiskered head of the bull sea lion high out of the water, followed
by a length or two behind by one or more arched bodies of the females, and all appearing to
be part of one animal, admittedly looks like a sea serpent.”
Whether such an explanation could account for the eerie experience of George Saggers,
a maritime veteran who had spent 27 years on the waves at the time of his sighting,
or the traditional tales told by the natives of Vancouver Island, whose ancestors knew
the sea and its inhabitants as well as any man knows his own backyard, is a matter of
conjecture.
Viewers who have been following this channel for some time may recall a name which routinely
appeared in the credits of my earliest videos, namely that of my good friend, Dan Chomistek.
Back when I was a starving artist just starting out on my writing career, Dan helped me out
both financially and in an advisory capacity, and I always told myself that when I finally
found my feet, I would pay him back for his generosity.
Dan, among other things, is an amateur screenwriter who has yet to catch his first lucky break.
In addition to some feature-length films, he’s written a number of very clever shorts
in the paranormal, science fiction, and dark comedy genres, most of which have very funny
twist endings.
Many of these shorts have ended up in the finals of film competitions, but only one
of them was ever actually produced, and on Dan’s own dime.
Like all screenwriters, Dan has always dreamed about getting his shorts properly produced,
and I’ve always thought that helping him achieve that goal would be the perfect way
to say ‘thank you’ for all the help he’s given me.
A few years ago, Dan was diagnosed with colon cancer.
He underwent a successful surgery and suffered months of chemotherapy during a very cold
Canadian winter, but, by the grace of God, he made a full recovery.
Dan’s illness prompted me to start looking for ways to get one of his short films produced.
After many disappointing false starts, I had the good fortune to come across the brilliant
Toby Roberts, a film director from the United Kingdom and the founding director of Colne
Brothers Films Ltd.
Toby agreed to help us give life to Dan’s short film, First Born, a drama which begins
in a town in 17th Century England, where a witch has been terrorizing local villagers
with black magic.
With financing from Dan and I, Toby assembled a fantastic team of actors and technicians,
scouted out a suitable set, ordered period costumes, and singlehandedly oversaw the creation
of the first scene of First Born, the final cut of which will play shortly.
In order to finish making the rest of the film, we will need to raise a minimum of 5,000
British Pounds, or roughly 6,600 American dollars.
I frankly can’t afford that kind of money, and so I thought I’d ask if you, my viewers,
would like to help us reach our goal on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.
If each of my YouTube subscribers chipped in 10 American cents, we would be able to
finish making First Born, and I have no doubt that it would be fantastic.
If you would like to help us out, please click the link to our Indiegogo campaign in the
video description, where you can find all sorts of cool perks that we’re selling in
an effort to finance this project.
We would truly appreciate any help you could give us.
Without further ado, here is the opening scene of Dan Chomistek and Toby Roberts’ short
film First Born.
Enjoy!
The following video deals with mature subject matter which may not be suitable for younger
children.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Get your hands off me!
Yeah, she bit me, too!
Let go of me!
Stop your struggling.
[Pejoratives and expletives] Selina Godworth, have ye a final word before
judgement is passed?
Only to curse ye, judge!
You and your vile family.
Never, generation upon generation, shall the firstborn son witness their father’s
grave.
Thank you very much for watching.
If you would like to help us finish the rest of this film, please check out the link to
our Indiegogo campaign, which you can find below in the video description.