Botwood: Flying Boats & Bob Hope
Killick Island bunker door, 2021
In the pioneering days of aviation only one central Newfoundland town was synonymous with flight — Botwood. The community on Exploits Bay was a stopover for aircraft long before there was a town called Gander.
Sidney Cotton before seal spotting flight.
John E. Maunder / Library and Archives Canada / PA-074266
Today Botwood is probably better known for its deep water port and world-class murals but in the 1920s it was at the forefront of aviation in Newfoundland.
It’s story began when the government hired Australian aviator Sidney Cotton to set up an aviation company. At Botwood, Cotton pioneered delivery of mail by plane, conducted timber surveys and monitored seal herds.
Things grew quickly from there.
In 1933 Charles Lindbergh used the port, and by 1937 experimental commercial flights were happening.
Then war came to town.
World War II
On September 3, 1939, in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain declared war bringing Newfoundland with it.
At the same time, the M.S. Christoph V. Doornum — a German freighter — was tied up at Botwood to receive a load of ore from the Buchans mine.
At about 11am September 3, 1939 the Newfoundland Constabulary seized the vessel. The crew, about 25 sailors, were taken to St. John’s where they were held in a prisoner of war camp.
The seizure of the Christoph V. Doornum is considered the first act of war in North America during of WWII and only the beginning of the war story for Botwood.
War Changes Botwood
Killick Island, Botwood
While war came swiftly to Botwood, few in town could imagine how drastically it would change the landscape — literally.
The Allied Forces realized the town’s aviation infrastructure could be useful to the North America/Europe war effort… and by the same token, potentially terrible, should the port fall into enemy hands.
Botwood was quickly readied for war. In 1940 control of the site was handed over to the RCAF and a large concrete tarmac was constructed. Then hangers, a hospital and barracks were developed.
Phillip’s Head, 2022
Killick Island, in Botwood harbour, was connected by a narrow causeway to the mainland and enormous ammunition bunkers were tunnelled into the island’s hillside. Church Spires that might pose a threat to incoming aircraft were removed. Anti-submarine steel netting blocked the harbour and large gun batteries were built at Phillip’s Head and Wiseman’s Cove.
The Phillip’s Head site was an impressive structure with a 3-storey look out, 700ft tunnel and the capacity to be flooded if enemy capture were imminent.
Botwood was an important asset —especially in the search for German U-boats.
Thousands of troops passed through the town, world leaders Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt passed through, even Bob Hope showed up.
Bob Hope
Hope golfing in the Oval Office with Nixon
Atkins, Oliver F., White House Photo Office, Public domain.
In his book I Never Left Home, Bob Hope recounts the story of an unexpectedly long layover in Botwood in 1943.
Hope was en route from America to England. The plane stopped in Botwood, as scheduled, and Hope performed a show for the RCAF’s Coastal Command. Hope says there were as many as eight hundred people in the audience. “They’re the boys who help give the big convoys air cover as far out as their gas will last,” Hope wrote. “They’ve done a lot to help beat the submarines. Brave bunch of kids. Great audience.”
When the show ended, weather forced the plane to stay in town. Hope wrote that he occupied himself by playing golf — it may not have been a wholly satisfying afternoon:
“Has anybody ever played golf at Botwood, Newfoundland?
Then let me tell you about it. The wind is so tough you’ve got to keep ducking your own drives. I played eighteen holes and wound up about half a mile behind where I teed off.”
With his game of golf behind him, Hope spent the rest of the evening rubbing shoulders with other notaries (Lord Beaverbrook and Averell Harriman) who happened to be in town.
The next morning he did a show in the local hospital then left for England.
Legacy
Eventually the importance of sea planes and flying boats diminished and the runways in Gander rose to prominence in transatlantic aviation.
But there is still plenty of evidence in Botwood of its aviation history and World War II. There’s a Flying Boat Museum, and a walking trail that will take you across the causeway to Killick Island (and its enormous red bunker doors). There’s another short trail to The Phillip’s Head Battery where you can still see creepy tunnels and crumbling infrastructure.
Both walks are scenic, enjoyable strolls through Newfoundland history and totally worth a visit.
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Botwood, Encyclopedia of Newfoundland Labrador
From Here to the Ports of the World, Central Newfoundland the heart of the province
Seizing the Christoph Van Doornum, Anglo Newfoundland Development Company
History, Botwood website.
Botwood, Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador
Bob Hope Teeing Off in Botwood, Newfoundland Quarterly, 1998
I Never Left Home, Bob Hope, 1944
