William E. Bradley

The subject of this sketch was born February 22, 1866, in Port Colborne, Ont., and completed his literary education in the public schools of that city in 1882. In the spring of 1883 he commenced tugging on the Sylvester Neelon as cook. In 1884 he went as fireman and deckhand on the tug Mary, and in 1885 shipped as fireman on the tug Hector, closing the season on the tug Inez.

In the spring of 1886 Mr. Bradley came to Buffalo and shipped as watchman on the steamer Grand Traverse, working that winter in M. Riter's boiler shop. In 1887 he fired on the tugs Dimmick, B. F. Bruce and Samson, and the following season was engaged in the same capacity on the tug E. C. Maytham when she went ashore at Dunkirk and sunk. During the winter he worked in the Union Shipyard on the steamer America. In 1889 he shipped on the tug S. W. Gee, and during the winter was occupied in transferring the boiler from the steamer Aurora into the Newburgh. The following season he fired on the tug James Adams, passing the winter months in the machine shop of Whitman & Co., and in 1891 opened the season on the tug O. W. Cheney, finishing as oiler on the passenger steamer Pilgrim. That fall he was appointed chief engineer on the steamyacht Vision, which he took to New York City by way of the Erie canal. In the spring of 1892 he was appointed chief engineer of the excursion Oclemena of Sodus Point, finishing the season on the Alexander H. Sloan, and in the winter he again took the Vision to New York City. Returning to Buffalo in the spring of 1893, he was appointed chief engineer of the excursion steamer Pilgrim, remaining on her also for the following season. In 1895 he took the tug F. L. Bapst, the first compound tug in Buffalo, owned by Carroll Bros., and in the fall he went on the steamer E. P. Wilbur, of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, as third engineer. During the season of 1896 he took the tug E. C. Shafer, and during the winter months ran a pumping engine for the Donnelly Contracting Company, who were engaged in lowering the bed of the Erie canal. Mr. Bradley is a member of the Buffalo Harbor Tug Pilots Association, and has seven issues of engineer's license.

On November 28, 1893, Mr. Bradley was wedded to Miss Mary A. Flynn, of Buffalo, and three children, George, Mary and Loretta, have been born to their union. The family residence is at No. 331 Oak street, Buffalo, New York.

Return to Home Port

Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.