Name
Lifeboat from Titanic
Lifeboat to Carpathia
Confidence Level
Bradley, Miss Bridget Delia
Collapsible C? D?
Collapsible C? D? 2.64


In the book Unsinkable Bridget, Bradley’s family states, without any specific supporting evidence or reason, that she was in boat #4. 

From the Glens Falls Times, April 20, 1912, pg. 1:
    “...Just as the last lifeboat, the one with Mr. Ismay in it, was launched over the side, one of the officers shouted “There’s more room in that boat” and I and eleven other women crowded into it.  This was after 1 o’clock, I don’t know how much, but it was after one.  The lifeboat was manned by enough men to care for it properly and immediately on touching the water, the men rowed with all their strength to get away from the ship, so that, if it did go down, we would not be caught in the suction.
     …Not until we got off the boat did we fully realize the danger.  Then we saw that the boat was tilted forward and that slowly, but surely, she was sinking.
    We saw the bottom row of lights disappear under the water and watched as line after line disappeared, showing us the rapidity of the sinking of the ship.”

Later in the same account, she stated the following:
    “...A few men, including six Chinese, had hidden under the seats of the lifeboats and were carried out, according to stories on the Carpathia Monday night, but it is said that two of them were crushed to death by the weight thrown upon them.  There were none of them in our boat.
    One of the bravest things I have ever seen was the action of the men whose wives had either been put in the lifeboats or had not been on board.  Many of these men stood calmly and watched the lifeboats depart…”

From the Glens Falls Times, June 11, 1912:
    "Miss Bradley was among the occupants of the last boat, and she did not board it until Captain Smith had forced those in it to make room for herself and perhaps a dozen more frightened women."

At the American Inquiry, page 1022, fellow Third Class passenger Daniel Buckley reported the following, which suggests that Bradley was in the same lifeboat as him:
    Mr. BUCKLEY.   ....There was a girl from my place, and just when she got down into the lifeboat she thought that the boat was sinking into the water. Her name was Bridget Bradley. She climbed one of the ropes as far as she could and tried to get back into the Titanic again, as she thought she would be safer in it than in the lifeboat. She was just getting up when one of the sailors went out to her and pulled her down again.

Bradley stated that she was in “the last lifeboat.”  This does not fit boat #4, as her family asserts.  Additionally, based on the testimony of Daniel Buckley, it appears that they may have been in the same lifeboat.  Buckley’s accounts do not match the events around #4.  Our team speculated that Bradley was in Collapsible C or D, based on the “last lifeboat” statement.  We discussed whether her account was a better fit for the port or starboard side based on the suggestion that men were not allowed to board, but this was not conclusive either way, since a cordon line prevented men from boarding Collapsible D, and men were hauled out of Collapsible C at one point in the loading.

Collapsible C does tie in with Bradley’s statement that Bruce Ismay was in her lifeboat.  Some of the details in Buckley’s accounts tend to fit this boat as well.  Contradicting this is Bradley’s denial that the Chinese survivors were in her lifeboat, which led to Collapsible D being considered by our team, as well. Bradley not describing her lifeboat tying up with any other boats following the sinking runs counter to this, as does the fact that Lightoller never described a woman trying to climb the falls out of Collapsible D as it lowered. 

Due to the contradictory evidence, we were split on whether Bradley was in Collapsible C or D.