Bridget Delia Kate Lynch

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/bridget-deli...

• Name: Miss Bridgett Delia McDermott
• Titanic Survivor
• Born: Tuesday 8th March 1881 in Addergoole, County Mayo, Ireland
• Age: 31 years 1 month and 7 days (Female)
• Nationality: Irish
• Marital Status: Single
• Last Residence: in Labardane, County Mayo, Ireland
• 3rd Class Passengers
• First Embarked: Queenstown on Thursday 11th April 1912
• Ticket No. 330932 £7 15s 8d
• Destination: Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
• Rescued: (Boat 13)
• Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
• Died: Tuesday 3rd November 1959 aged 78 years
• Buried: Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-lifeboat-13/ Life Boat No. 13
• Reference: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/ R.M.S. Titanic deck plan

Miss Bridget Delia McDermott, 28 (1) was born in Knockfarnaught, Lahardane, Co. Mayo. She was the daughter of Michael McDermott and Bridget Rowland. She lived with her parents in a thatched cottage in Addergoole Parish, Lahardane, Co Mayo, Ireland.

She was travelling to the home of her cousin, Maria Finnerty in St. Louis, Missouri. She purchased a third class ticket from Thomas Durcan of Castlebar; number 330932 which cost her £7, 15s, 8d. Before her departure one day she travelled to the town of Crossmolina to buy new clothing. One of her purchases was a smart new hat. She liked the hat so much that weeks later she risked her life to recover it from her cabin on the Titanic. Delia was one of 14 people, led by Katherine McGowan, from Addergoole preparing in Spring 1912 to travel on the Titanic.

Bridget McDermott's niece, now Mrs Delia Melody of Lord Edward Street, Ballina, tells of a strange and chilling encounter between her aunt and a mysterious man in black in Lahardane village the evening before she left for Queenstown:

"She was in Lahardane with friends when suddenly a hand tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and there was a little man there whom she thought was a traveller. My aunt went to give the man a few pennies and he told her he knew she was going on a long journey. 'There will be a tragedy but you will be saved', the little man said before disappearing".

When Bridget mentioned the man to her friends, they said they hadn't seen anybody. Thus Bridget McDermott began her journey with some apprehension.

Bridget was sleeping when the impact occurred. She felt nothing and was only alerted to the mishap when a steward told them to get up, get dressed and head topside. However, the steward also assured them that there was no danger. Bridget recalled that officers held passengers back at the companionways, telling them that things were not ready. Despite this impediment Bridget was one of the first to find a lifeboat but returned to her cabin for the new hat she had bought before the journey.

John Bourke and Peter Canavan knew from previous exploration of the vessel there was a ladder leading to the upper decks. Gathering the women and girls about them, they started for the ladder.

Bridget escaped in (possibly) lifeboat 13, after having to jump some fifteen feet from a rope-ladder and into the boat.

Bridget reached New York on board the Carpathia.

She and later came to Atlantic City, New Jersey and then to Jersey City where she met and married John Lynch,the couple had three children: two girls and a boy. For many years she ran a boarding house on Union Street, Jersey City and her husband worked for the railroad.

She died in Jersey City on 3 November 1959 and is buried in Holy Name Cemetery there, resting place to three other Irish survivors: Margaret Devaney, Elizabeth Dowdell and Thomas McCormack

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/bridget-delia... Daughter of Michael McDermott and Bridget Rowland. Survivor the sinking of "unsinkable" Titanic. She married John Lynch and had three children.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 23 2019, 16:18:07 UTC
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Aug 23 2019, 16:40:18 UTC
• Reference: Full text- https://archive.org/details/truthabouttitani00grac/page/n6 "The Truth About the Titanic" by Colonel Archibald Gracie, IV 1913 pp. 288-296

BOAT NO. 13*

Seventh boat lowered on starboard side, 1.25 (Br. Rpt., p. 38). No disorder when this boat was loaded and lowered.

Passengers: Women: Second cabin, including Mrs. Caldwell and her child Alden. All the rest second and third-class women.

Men: Dr. Dodge only first cabin passenger. Second cabin, Messrs. Beasley and Caldwell. One Japanese.

Crew: Firemen: Barrett (in charge), Beauchamp, Major and two others. Stewards: Ray, Wright and another; also baker .

Total: 64.

incidents

Mr. Lawrence Beesley's book, already cited, gives an excellent description of No. 13's history, but for further details, see his book. The Loss of the SS. Titanic, Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston.

F. Barrett, leading stoker (Br. Inq.) : Witness then made his escape up the escape ladder and walked aft on to Deck A on the starboard side, where only two boats were left, Nos. 13 and 15. No. 13 was partly lowered when he got there. Five-sixths in the boat were women. No. 15 was lowered about thirty seconds later. When No. 13 got down to the water he shouted: "Let go the after fall," but, as no one took any notice, he had to walk over women and cut the fall himself. No. 15 came down nearly on top of them, but they just got clear. He took charge of the boat until he got so cold that he had to give up to someone else. A woman put a cloak over him, as he felt so freezing, and he could not remember anything after that. No men waiting on the deck got into his boat. They all stood in one line in perfect order waiting to be told to get into the boat. There was no disorder whatever. They picked up nobody from the sea.

F. D. Ray, steward (Am. Inq., 798) : Witness assisted in the loading of boat No. 9 and saw it and No. 11 boat lowered, and went to No. 13 on A Deck. He saw it about half filled with women and children. A few men were ordered to get in; about nine to a dozen passengers and crew. Dr. Washington Dodge was there and was told that his wife and child had gone away in one of the boats. Witness said to him: "You had better get in here then," and got behind him and pushed him and followed after him. A rather large woman came along crying and saying: "Do not put me in the boat; I don't want to get in one. I have never been in an open boat in my life." He said: "You have got to go and you may as well keep quiet." After that there was a small child rolled in a blanket thrown into the boat to him. The woman that brought it got into the boat afterwards. We left about three or four men on the deck at the rail and they went along to No. 15 boat. No. 13 was lowered away. When nearly to the water, two or three of them noticed a very large discharge of water coming from the ship's side which he thought was the pumps working. The hole was about two feet wide and about a foot deep with a solid mass of water coming out. They shouted for the boat to be stopped from being lowered and they responded promptly and stopped lowering the boat. They pushed it off from the side of the ship until they were free from this discharge. He thinks there were no sailors or quartermasters in the boat because they apparently did not know how to get free from the tackle. Knives were called for to cut loose. In the meantime they were drifting a little aft and boat No. 15 was being lowered immediately upon them about two feet from their heads and they all shouted again, and they again replied very promptly and stopped lowering boat No. 15. They elected a fireman (Barrett) to take charge. Steward Wright was in the boat; two or three children and a very young baby seven months old. Besides Nos. 9, 11, and 13, No. 15 was lowered to Deck A and filled from it. He saw no male passengers or men of the crew whatever ordered out or thrown out of these lifeboats on the starboard side. Everybody was very orderly and there was no occasion to throw anybody out. In No. 13 there were about four or five firemen, one baker, three stewards; about nine of the crew. Dr. Washington Dodge was the only first-class passenger and the rest were third-class. There was one Japanese. There was no crowd whatever on A Deck while he was loading these boats. No. 13 was full.

Extracts from Dr. Washington Dodge's address: "The Loss of the Titanic" a copy of which he kindly sent me:

I heard one man say that the Impact was due to Ice. Upon one of his listeners' questioning the authority of this, he replied: *'Go up forward and look down on the fo'castle deck, and you can see for yourself." I at once walked forward to the end of the promenade deck, and looking down could see, just within the starboard rail, small fragments of broken Ice, amounting possibly to several cartloads. As I stood there an Incident occurred which made me take a more serious view of the situation, than I otherwise would.

Two stokers, who had slipped up onto the promenade deck unobserved, said to me: "Do you think there is any danger, sir?" I replied: "If there is any danger It would be due to the vessel's having sprung a leak, and you ought to know more about it than I." They replied, in what appeared to me to be an alarmed tone: Well, sir, the water was pouring into the stoke 'old when we came up, sir." At this time I observed quite a number of steerage passengers, who were amusing themselves by walking over the ice, and kicking it about the deck. No ice or iceberg was to be seen in the ocean.

I watched the boats on the starboard side, as they were successively filled and lowered away. At no time during this period, was there any panic, or evidence of fear, or unusual alarm. I saw no women nor children weep, nor were there any evidences of hysteria observed by me.

I watched all boats on the starboard side, comprising the odd numbers from one to thirteen, as they were launched. Not a boat was launched which would not have held from ten to twenty- five more persons. Never were there enough women or children present to fill any boat before it was launched. In all cases, as soon as those who responded to the officers' call were in the boats, the order was given to "Lower away."

What the conditions were on the port side of the vessel I had no means of observing. We were in semi-darkness on the Boat Deck, and owing to the immense length and breadth of the vessel, and the fact that between the port and the starboard side of the Boat Deck, there were officers' cabins, staterooms for passengers, a gymnasium, and innumerable immense ventilators, it would have been impossible, even in daylight, to have obtained a view of but a limited portion of this boat deck. We only knew what was going on within a radius of possibly forty feet.

Boats Nos. 13 and 15 were swung from the davits at about the same moment. I heard the officer in charge of No. 13 say: "We'll lower this boat to Deck A. Observing a group of possibly fifty or sixty about boat 15, a small proportion of which number were women, I descended by means of a stairway close at hand to the deck below, Deck A. Here, as the boat was lowered even with the deck, the women, about eight in number, were assisted by several of us over the rail of the steamer into the boat. The officer in charge then held the boat, and called repeatedly for more women. None appearing, and there being none visible on the deck, which was then brightly illuminated, the men were told to tumble in. Along with those present I entered the boat. Ray was my table steward and called to me to get in.

The boat in which I embarked was rapidly lowered, and as it approached the water I observed, as I looked over the edge of the boat, that the bow, near which I was seated, was being lowered directly into an enormous stream of water, three or four feet in diameter, which was being thrown with great force from the side of the vessel. This was the water thrown out by the condenser pumps. Had our boat been lowered into the same it would have been swamped in an instant. The loud cries which were raised by the occupants of the boat caused those who were sixty or seventy feet above us to cease lowering our boat. Securing an oar with considerable difficulty, as the oars had been firmly lashed together by means of heavy tarred twine, and as in addition they were on the seat running parallel with the side of the lifeboat, with no less than eight or ten occupants of the boat sitting on them, none of whom showed any tendency to disturb themselves — we pushed the bow of the lifeboat, by means of the oar, a sufficient distance away from the side of the Titanic to clear this great stream of water which was gushing forth. We were then safely lowered to the water. During the few moments occupied by these occurrences I felt for the only time a sense of impending danger.

We were directed to pull our lifeboat from the steamer, and to follow a light which was carried in one of the other lifeboats, which had been launched prior to ours. Our lifeboat was found to contain no lantern, as the regulations require; nor was there a single sailor, or officer in the boat. Those who undertook to handle the oars were poor oarsmen, almost without exception, and our progress was extremely slow. Together with two or three other lifeboats which were in the vicinity, we endeavored to overtake the lifeboat which carried the light, in order that we might not drift away and possibly become lost. This light appeared to be a quarter of a mile distant, but, in spite of our best endeavors, we were never enabled to approach any nearer to it, although we must have rowed at least a mile.

Delia McDermott survived Titanic despite climbing out of a lifeboat to retain a prized possession. She was one of 14 people from Addergoole in Co Mayo who boarded the liner, 11 of whom perished.

Editor's Note: On April 15, 1912, the Belfast-built RMS Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg, killing over 1,500 passengers and crew on board. This was one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history and among those on board were many Irish.

In the run-up to the anniversary of the disaster, IrishCentral will take a look at the Irish on board – the lucky, unlucky and heroic.

This is an extract from the book “The Irish Aboard the Titanic” by Senan Molony which tells the tales of the people who were on board the night the ship went down. This book gives those people a voice. In it are stories of agony, luck, self-sacrifice, dramatic escapes, and heroes left behind.

• Delia McDermott
• Ticket number 330932.
• Paid £7 15s 8d.
• Boarded at Queenstown. Third Class.
• From: Knockfarnaught, Lahardane, County Mayo.
• Destination: 404 Henrietta Street, St Louis, Missouri.

Although one of the first to find a place in a lifeboat, Delia insisted on climbing out of the early boat to recover a prized possession. She had bought a new hat in Cawley’s shop, Crossmolina, the nearest big town to her home place in a remote part of Co Mayo, just before she traveled to America.

Journalist Tom Shiel told her story in The Connaught Telegraph of February 1998:

Nephin Mór had been snowcapped on a number of occasions during the winter of 1912 and the people in the valleys below were longing for Spring. Even when only the boggy summit of Mayo’s highest mountain was mantled in white, the people of Addergoole parish (Lahardane), indeed the whole of Ireland, had a cold time of it.

Many times that long ago spring of 1912, Delia McDermott looked westwards from her parents’ thatched cottage at Knockfarnaught at the great majestic bulk of mountain. When the hedgerows were greening and only a few tiny stripes of snow remained on the upper reaches, Delia knew the time was fast approaching when she would be uprooted, perhaps forever, from her birthplace.

As part of her preparations for the great journey to America, she traveled one day to Crossmolina to buy new clothing. One of her purchases was a smart new hat. She liked the hat so much that weeks later she risked her life to recover it from her cabin in the ill-fated Titanic.

Delia was one of 14 people from Addergoole preparing in spring 1912 to travel on the White Star liner. Only three of the group survived. Delia, despite dicing with death on the double in order to retrieve her cherished millinery, was one of the lucky ones.

There was a great activity in Addergoole as the sailing time approached. Those not traveling were out and about on the land and in the bog, or perhaps taking the odd trip to Castlebar where the women sold eggs and the men purchased grain and farm implements.

Thoughts of turf-cutting and harvesting were far from the minds of those who were about to emigrate as they traveled by pony and trap over the steep Windy Gap and then at a smart gallop into Castlebar. By the time the scythes had felled the first grass of that year’s hay harvest, they planned to be carving out new lives in Chicago or other bustling industrial cities in the industrial United States.

In March, ten of the intending passengers, including Delia McDermott, then 28 years old, booked their passage with Thomas Durcan of Castlebar. Three others booked with another travel agent, Mrs. Walsh of Linenhall Street.

The days before they were due to travel for Queenstown were extremely busy ones for the Addergoole contingent. They visited neighbors most would never see again and there were tearful embraces on the doorstep of many a thatched cottage.

Delia McDermott’s niece, now Delia Melody of Lord Edward Street, Ballina, tells the story of a strange and chilling encounter between her aunt and a mysterious man in black in Lahardane village the evening before she left for Cobh.

"She was in Lahardane with friends when suddenly a hand tapped her on the shoulder," Mrs. Melody explained.

"She turned around and there was a little man there whom she thought was a traveler. My aunt went to give the man a few pennies and he told her he knew she was going on a long journey."

"There will be a tragedy, but you will be saved,” the little man said before disappearing. When Delia mentioned the little man to her friends, they said they hadn’t seen anybody. Thus Delia McDermott began her long and eventful journey to the New World filled with some foreboding …

Luck was also in Delia McDermott’s favor. She was one of the first to find a lifeboat but returned to her cabin for the new hat she had bought before the journey. Says Delia’s niece, Mrs. Melody: ‘It was perhaps a foolish thing to do, but luckily she managed to get a place in a boat. She had to jump fifteen feet from a rope ladder onto the lifeboat. At this stage, the Titanic was sideways. It was going down.’

Delia indeed survived and later prospered in the United States. She never returned to Ireland. Report of the American Red Cross (Titanic Disaster) 1913: No. 323. (Irish.) Servant, 25 years of age, injured very severely, and long unable to work. ($200)

On 25 April, Delia McDermott received $150 from the Women’s Relief Committee, formed in New York to aid survivors. She had intended to travel to her cousin, Mrs. Celia Syson, at Henrietta Street, St Louis, but never left the east coast. She moved from New York to New Jersey, marrying a fellow countryman, John Joseph Lynch of Galway. He served in the First World War and spent his working years on the Jersey city docks. They had three children – Julia, Margaret and Tommy. Delia never spoke about her Titanic experiences and the children were forbidden to ask her about it. It appears however that Delia was rescued in lifeboat No. 13, launched from the starboard side of the ship relatively early in the night.

Her daughter, Julia Danning, remembers Delia’s later life:

She was a quiet, home-loving housewife, devoted to her family. She was very devout, with daily Mass and nightly Rosary. Her one and only vice was a weekly Euchre game with friends. She rarely spoke of her experience aboard the Titanic except for having left a lifeboat to go back and retrieve her new hat. Hats being what they were in those days, it was no doubt a huge expenditure for her family and it was a going-away gift. Otherwise, I believe the ordeal was so traumatic that she closed her mind to it.

Delia died in Jersey City, N.J., on 3 November 1959. She was believed to have been aged 75 – a figure supported by the 1901 census which put her age at 17. However, if an age of 32 from the 1911 census is correct, she would have been 33 when the Titanic sailed, and 80 when she died.

1911 census – McDermott, Knockfarnaught. Parents: Michael (77), farmer, Bridget (73). Married 40 years, seven children, four living.

Children in the house: Thomas (35), Bridget (Delia, 32). “The Irish Aboard the Titanic” by Senan Molony is available online.

• Originally published in 2012.