He later however fell out with his aboriginal contacts and instead undertook a mission to gather food which ended with an eleven-month stay on Norfolk Island after a shipwreck.

His family was closely associated with the Royal Naval Academy and both his younger brother James and his father John Bradley served on the faculty.

His service during the American Revolutionary War was not significant, but Bradley was attached on the Sirius to the First Fleet destined to colonise Australia.

[1] During 1788, Bradley did not involve himself directly in colonial affairs, but instead joined John Hunter in extensive operations along the Sydney Harbour coastline.

[1] A keen note-taker and sketcher, Bradley compiled a journal which begins in 1786 with the organisation of the fleet from Deptford and records the voyage to Australia.

[1] On 1 October 1788, he wrote in his journal, "What has been experienced lately in several instances of meeting with the natives, has occasioned me to alter those very favourable opinions I had formed of them, and however much I wished to encourage the idea of their being friendly disposed, I must acknowledge, now convinced, that they are only so when they suppose we have them in our power or are well prepared by being armed.

[1] In November 1789 He took part in a raid which captured local Aboriginal leaders Colbee and Bennelong, a duty which Bradley described as extremely unpleasant.

The campaign concluded with the battle of the Glorious First of June, where Howe's fleet defeated an equally sized French force but failed to stop the convoy.

Arrested and brought before the Winchester Assizes, his conduct was noted as being highly unusual, but this was not taken into account initially and he was stripped of his rank and pension and sentenced to death.

[1] Retiring to Le Havre, France in 1816, Bradley devoted the sane hours of his life to a series of inventions designed to easily calculate longitude.