Royal Navy Lee joined the
Royal Navy in 1887 as a clerk and was promoted to as
Assistant-Paymaster in 1891. During this time, Lee developed a serious drinking problem which became an issue with his superiors. He was sent home from a posting in
Jamaica in February 1898 suffering from
delerium tremens. Eventually, his drinking led to the Royal Navy discharging him in 1900, stating that his duty was "not at all satisfactory" and that he "cannot be trusted where liquor is obtainable."
Merchant Navy and Titanic Lee eventually began working with British Merchant fleet. In the 1911 consensus, he was listed as being a
stevedore. He had worked as a lookout on several ships, including the , from which he was transferred to the brand new liner, the . On 14 April at 22:00, Lee and Fleet in the crow's nest, replacing
Archie Jewell and
George Symons. They were instructed to keep a lookout for "small ice and growlers." There were no binoculars available for the lookouts aboard
Titanic, so the lookouts relied on their own eyesight; it is highly doubtful the use of binoculars would have aided in spotting the iceberg due to how dark it was that night, and several captains later testified they never provided lookout men with binoculars as their job was to alert the bridge to what was ahead, not identify it. When the
Titanic began to founder, Lee was ordered to man lifeboat No. 13, which was launched from the ship's starboard side at 01:30. As a result, Lee survived the sinking, as did Fleet. While Fleet and Lee were both detained in New York, only Fleet testified at the American inquiry. Lee returned to England aboard the , where testified before the
Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster. At the inquiry, Lee claimed he saw a haze on the horizon ahead of them, and that Fleet told him, "Well, if we can see through that we will be lucky." However, Fleet did not back Lee up on the matter, instead saying that there was a slight haze but "it was nothing to talk about." He soon returned to sea, and was serving aboard the in July 1913. ==Death==