LBMCOC

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I spent this past summer working at the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum, and it is part of why I didn’t get to post much this summer. Between that and tours, I didn’t have time to do proper research, but did collect a bit of interesting information that once September settles down (no more museum work, but lots of tours) I will share more of it.

For now, here is a quick excerpt from one of the Senior Interviews located in the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum archives. These will soon be up on the MUN Digital Archives, and hopefully next year more interviews, especially those about the Red Cliff Radar Station, will be up on the archives. They will be available again for anyone who wants to read them when the museum opens again next summer.

This summer I have been working at the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum as one of my three jobs. It’s been a busy summer, and I have not been keeping up on my blog posts. This quick post came to mind as in the same day that I read the following interview with Mrs. Mary Boland, long-time resident of LBMCOC, former MHA Tom Hickey came to the museum and mentioned the Hindenburg passing over the area.

The following is from the transcript of an interview with Mrs. Boland that is housed in the museum collection.

The Hindenburg seen from the South Side Hills in St. John's. From the George Story Collection.

The Hindenburg seen from the South Side Hills in St. John’s. From the George Story Collection.

Interview with Mrs. Mary Boland

1 April 2000

Interviewer Martin Bolan

From the Senior Interviews, from the collection of the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum

Martin

Now, I remember you telling me one time about that big blimp.

Mary

Yeah, the Hindenburg, the one that came over from Germany.

Martin

That’s the one that caught fire in the States. Now, that went right up though Outer Cove, didn’t it?

Mary

That went right up, came up from the Flatrock beamer, that way, come up that way and it was just floating along. There was no sound or any kind of noise out of it and it kept on going up right slow, and it kept right in the bay and it went right on up over the big river, that way. And it kept on going right out and it was going right slow. ‘Twas just like a big bomb. That was the name of it, the Hindenburg.

Martin

What did the crowd think of that?

Mary

Oh my God, everyone thought there was a war on or something, because you had no radio or anything, and you wouldn’t know unless you’d be in Town and get the paper and get any news out of it. And there was no radio or TV. Moor Mrs. Whelan, they had a garden there by that wall there on the corner and I was out in the yard watchin’ it and she beckoned to me to go down to her and she said: “What is it? Did you hear anything? Did you see that thing going up like a big balloon?” And I said: “Yes, we don’t know what it was.” There was no noise to it. She said: “Tis not like a plane and there was no wings or nothing on it, ‘twas just like a big bomb.” “My God” she said “I suppose they’re not going to blow us up.” Poor old thing, she was frightened to death. And the next day then, someone was in Town and got the paper, some of the milkmen, Pines or someone, and they said ‘twas a German modern-type plane. They said it was one of a kind and they were doing some kind of experiment on it. It said then, in the paper, they phoned the Head office in Germany or England, or somewhere, and they said they were testing it to see what endurance it would have, going with no wings or anything, just a motor.

Martin

Any idea when that was?

Mary

I think it would be about 1937 or 1936, mid-thirties.

Martin

Is that the same on that blew up?

Mary

Yes, it went from here across to Canada and into the States. ‘Twas some place in the States, it blew up.

Martin

Yeah, New Jersey or some place like that. Anyway that was the excitement for that day.

Mary

Yeah, it was a really exciting time.

The Hindenburg over Newfoundland, possibly over Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove. From the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum Collection.

The Hindenburg over Newfoundland, possibly over Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove. From the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum Collection.

Mrs. Boland’s interview shows how isolated many areas of the island were, even those who were within a day’s travel to St. John’s. While in St. John’s there might have been warning, and perhaps the German flag had been flying on Cabot Town, many other communities who did not have radios would have to wait until the newspaper arrived or someone came back from St. John’s (Town) to share the news. As can be seen with Mrs. Boland’s account, sometimes that news wasn’t always accurate. The Hindenburg was not the first such ship to fly over Newfoundland, although it was the largest (Deal 2012). The Graf Zeppelin and the R-34 were two other dirigibles who flew over Newfoundland, and a number of blimps visited Newfoundland as well. Mrs. Boland, at Mr. Boland’s leading questions, is not clear if she remembers that the Hindenburg crashed that same trip, or if she just remembers that it is the same aircraft. Like many, Mr. Boland may not have been aware that the Hindenburg flew over Newfoundland 13 times, and Mrs. Boland may not be remembering that last trip. If it were indeed an experimental flight (unlikely seeing as the Graf Zeppelin made an earlier passenger flight across the Atlantic in 1928) that would make it an early, 1936 flight, not the final ill-fated flight in 1937. Research done by Dr. Deal of Memorial University (2012) indicates that the first time the Hindenburg passed over the Avalon Peninsula in July 1936, but in that case it did not go as far east as Outer Cove, but rather left by flying over Signal Hill in St. John’s. Most likely Mrs. Boland and Mr. Hickey were recalling the September 1936 flight of the Hindenburg when on the 19th of that month the dirigible came in from Cuckhold’s Cove (or perhaps Outer Cove which is relatively close) before flying over St. John’s and Conception Bay. The final flight in 1937 only passed by the southern tip of the island, where survivors recounted seeing ice bergs off the coast of Cape Race.

Discrepancies are certainly to be expected. Mrs. Boland would have been around 16 when the Hindenburg passed over, and amazingly, Mr. Hickey would only have been 3 or 4 years old at the time. Even if other blimps and dirigibles had passed over Newfoundland, the Hindenburg was such a spectacular sight that it stayed in the minds of many, no matter how young or old.

 

Source

Boland, M.
2000 Interview with Mary Boland, Senior Interviews. On file at the Museum of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove.

Deal, M.
2012 Airships over Newfoundland. Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal, 50(1): 14-24.