Name |
Lifeboat from Titanic |
Lifeboat to Carpathia |
Confidence Level |
Leroy, Miss Berthe | 2? | 2? | 2.61 |
Archibald Gracie, in his book The Truth About the Titanic, lists Miss Leroy in #2, along with her employer, Mrs Mahala Douglas. However, Gracie gives no details on Miss Leroy, nor does Mrs. Douglas affadavit in this book say anything about her. Mrs. Douglas’ statement from the American Inquiry, page 1101-1103, as it relates to her maid: “As I waited for Mr. Douglas to return I went back to speak to my maid, who was in the same cabin as Mrs. Carter's maid. Now people commenced to appear with life preservers, and I heard from some one that the order had been given to put them on. I took three from our cabin, gave one to the maid, telling her to get off in the small boat when her turn came. Mr. Douglas met me as I was going up to find him and asked, jestingly, what I was doing with those life preservers. He did not think even then that the accident was serious. We both put them on, however, and went up on the boat deck. ….Finally, as we stood by a collapsible boat lying on the deck and an emergency boat swinging from the davits was being filled, it was decided I should go.” And no more relating to her maid. Though it is not conclusive, it does appear Miss Leroy was with Mrs Douglas going up to the deck, and there is no indication that she did not stay with going into the lifeboat. Note that the account does not state specifically that Leroy was still with her employer. Does "we" refer to Mr. and Mrs Douglas only, or to all three of them? We could not prove it one way or the other. A late in life account Miss Leroy (by this time, her name was Bourlard) from La Voix du Nord, May 9th 1965 relates: "Mme Douglas, accompanied by Mlle Leroy, got into lifeboat #2 and she steered it, whereas her young maid rowed as strongly as she could. .... We may have been fifty in this boat”, recalls Mme Bourlard, who adds “I was rowing with all my strength to escape from this nightmare yet we were rowing round the ship”. Maybe was it in order to pick up passengers who had jumped to the sea and who cried for help; for more and more wrecked people grabbed the boats in which they were hoisted." "Rowing around the ship" could refer to the movement of lfieboat #2 around the stern of Titanic to the starboard side to pick up people from open doors on that side. As a group, we were not convinced Miss Leroy was in #2, but found it somewhat likely. |