Name
Lifeboat from Titanic
Lifeboat to Carpathia
Confidence Level
Lehmann, Miss Bertha 12 (7 votes)
14 (2 votes)
12 (7 votes)
4 or 12 (2 votes)
2.42
3.50 

 


In a 1934 account, she says:
    “I reached the lifeboat, the last one on the left side.  Everyone had a place, but men were ordered back.  “Ladies first,” was the command.  I remember two men who hid themselves behind ladies skirts.  Their sweethearts were on the same boat.
When it was full, it was lowered with ropes.  One side was always lower than the other.  We reached the water safely.  The men could not open the knots, so asked for a knife.  ….. There were four men at the oars…..”

From the Brainerd (Minnesota) Daily Dispatch in the late 1930s (printed in Commutator 137 (Vol 21 No 1) and reprinted in On Board RMS Titanic page 345.] she adds:
    "We saw a growing light on the horizon. It was really getting daylight. When it was almost daylight we then came upon another lifeboat. It had only a few men in it, and as our boat was crowded some of us stepped from our boat into the other one. Both of the boats went on again, but in the course of time we drifted apart."

We think time probably had her confused about the order of things. She has them rescuing men from an overturned boat before joining up with another. If it was indeed Collapsible B they rescued the "three" men from, #12 does seem likely.

From the Waterloo (Iowa) Courier of April 26, 1912:
    "There were forty in the lifeboat when they left the ship, but when they were picked up by the Carpathia there were ninety in all and clinging to the sides of the boat."

We estimate that around 42 people were in #12 when she left the side of the Titanic, very close to her guess.  Judging by how crowded her boat became between the time of leaving the Titanic and arriving at the Carpathia, picking up people during the shuffle of people in "Lowe's Flotilla' of #4, #10,#12 and Collapsible D, and then picking up some of the men on Collapsible B, #12 does again seem likely.  Although some of us guessed she left in #14, and had to transfer to either #4 or #12, the two boats that picked up the survivors of Collapsible B.