Name
Lifeboat from Titanic
Lifeboat to Carpathia
Confidence Level
Whiteley, Mr Thomas Arthur
Collapsible B 4 or 12
  12
5.00
4.63


Whiteley gave the following lecture on May 28, 1912 (also appears to be what was printed in the Pawtucket (RI) Evening Times, May 7, 1912):
    “By that time the Titanic was listing. By that time her head broke and the water came rushing on to her boat deck where I was. When I felt the water on my feet I rushed to get into a boat. The officer cut its davits one end but could not cut the other. The rope got around my leg and pulled me on to the deck again, and a big wave came on deck and washed me into the sea about ten yards.
    When I got the rope on my leg off I came to the top, made for some wreckage which I hung on to .... I held on to the wreckage and when I saw a larger piece than I had I got it and held on. I got hold of a first cabin wardrobe and hung on to this. I kept the circulation in my body by beating my hands and my feet in a steady motion. All the time I was constantly in the water, and a life belt kept the weight of my body up. Four other men caught on the wardrobe with me but they dropped off one by one and I was left alone.
    About six o'clock in the morning I saw a collapsible boat; it was upside down with about thirty men standing on it. I was drifting towards this. I measured my distance and thought I could swim about one-quarter to one-half of a mile to this collapsible boat, so I let go of what I held and swam to it.
    I arrived at the boat, but they refused to take me on board. I asked if I might hold on to the side. They tried to beat me off with oars, but I succeeded in holding on. Finally, after about a half hour, someone died, so they threw the body overboard and took me on.
    We were standing on this boat about two hours before we got picked up by one of the Titanic's lifeboats. We left three dead on it. then we rowed to the Carpathia. We reached her and were the last to board her, at 9 a.m."

Gracie in his The Truth About the Titanic had this to say:
   “Steward Thomas Whiteley, interviewed by the New York Tribune, said: 'I drifted near a boat wrong-side-up. About 30 men were clinging to it. They refused to let me get on. Somebody tried to hit me with an oar, but I scrambled on to her.'"

It is quite obvious that Whiteley made it onto Collapsible B (though his estimate of getting onto it at 6 a.m. cannot be correct).  When people were taken off Collapsible B, they either went to #4 or #12.  We feel that #12 is by far the more likely, though we cannot completely rule out #4.