In the early 1900s, traveling by ship was all the rage. White Star Line was one of the
most prominent and luxurious shipping lines of the time, catering to the rich and famous.
With a reputation like that, you’d probably expect that their ships wouldn’t, you know,
sink? Well, I guess popularity doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing…
Violet Constance Jessop learned that lesson the hard way. She survived three disasters
on three different ships, but all belonging to White Star Line! So who was this lucky
(or perhaps unlucky) lady, and what could’ve possibly put her in such similar catastrophes
time after time?
Violet Jessop was born in Argentina, the oldest of 6 siblings in an Irish immigrant family.
When she was just 16, they lost their father, so her mother decided to move the family back
to Great Britain where she found work as a ship's stewardess. Unfortunately, her mother
fell ill a few years later and couldn’t work anymore, so it was up to Violet to provide
for her family. She dropped out of school to look for a job, and following in her mom's
footsteps, was soon employed as an ocean liner stewardess with the Royal Mail Line. This
was actually unusual for a woman her age at that time since stewardesses back then were
generally older and more mature-looking. So, at her 21 years of age, she purposely wore
dated clothes designed for more mature women just so that she could look older! She also
stayed clear of wearing makeup to help her show any fine lines on her face. It's not
often you hear of a woman trying to dress and look older than she really is, but I get
it – it helped land her a job she urgently needed.
A few years later in 1911, she started working aboard White Star Line’s RMS Olympic, which
at the time was the largest of all passenger ships. This is where Jessop experienced her
first ship disaster. As they were leaving the harbor, a British warship accidentally
crashed into the Olympic, leaving it with two massive holes in the hull. Fortunately,
the ship hadn’t gone too far yet and managed to get back safely without ending up at the
bottom of the sea. Nobody was hurt during this mishap.
Also during that time, a new ship was being built, and it was the talk around town. It
was said to be the Titan of the Sea, the ultimate “unsinkable” ship. That’s right, I’m
talking about Titanic. Violet Jessop was really enjoying her job on board the Olympic and
had no intentions of going anywhere else. But everyone kept telling her to apply for
a transfer to the headline-making sister ship – they all thought it would be the coolest
ship to work on! She eventually caved in to the peer pressure and sent in her application.
Once on board the Titanic, she did find herself liking the improved servant’s quarters and
was happy to still be working with all of her friends.
As we all know by now, this ship was not as lucky as the Olympic, and with almost cruel
irony, it certainly didn’t live up to its nickname. The great unsinkable Titanic sunk
on its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912 after crashing into an iceberg. Jessop was in her
cabin when the collision happened. She was immediately called to go and help up on deck,
guiding women and children to the lifeboats. Eventually, she was put on one of those boats
and was handed a baby to take care of. In the freezing cold of the North Atlantic air,
they waited a grueling 8 hours for help. The ship Carpathia ended up coming to the rescue.
As Jessop recalled, after everyone was safely on board, a woman rushed over and grabbed
the baby out of her arms and ran away without saying a word. Yeah, she thought it was strange
too, but she figured the frantic woman must have been the baby’s mother.
So, recap: she’s already survived two consecutive ship crashes at this point: one in 1911 and
the other a year later in 1912. Now fast-forward a few years later to 1916. Jessop was then
serving as a nurse for the British Red Cross. She was posted on yet another sister ship
to the Titanic and owned by White Star Line: HMHS Britannic. This ship’s designers had
learned from the mistakes of the previous two White Star Line disasters and built this
one to be the safest of the three. One of the biggest adjustments was that it had way
more lifeboats onboard. In fact, this ship had enough lifeboats to carry 3,600 people,
which was much more than the maximum amount of passengers it could hold! (Compare that
to the Titanic, which had a tragic shortage – an oversight that would end up costing
more people their lives.)
Anyway, the Britannic had been converted into a hospital ship to help bring wounded soldiers
back home. And as fate would so cruelly have it yet again, Jessop found herself in a third
ship disaster within a span of 5 years! This time, however, it wasn’t due to faulty design
or bad planning – it was an unexpected explosion that caused it to sink into the Aegean Sea.
It's theorized they either ran into an underwater mine or were hit by a torpedo. To this day,
no one really knows what caused the explosion that sank the Britannic. Thankfully, most
of the passengers and crew survived. Although Jessop was among the lucky ones, she did receive
a pretty serious head injury while trying to escape in a lifeboat that was being sucked
under by the force of the sinking vessel. Some years later, after suffering from constant,
painful headaches, she finally decided to go to the doctor and found out that she’d
actually fractured her skull!
Do you think this woman was doomed with bad luck, or do you think it was good luck that
carried her through bad times? Perhaps it was a little bit of both or that she was just
such a resilient survivor. Even at a young age, Jessop made it through an unlikely circumstance.
When she was a little girl, she got really sick, and the doctors didn’t think she’d
make it through the next few months. Well, she obviously did and would even outlive all
her younger siblings in the end! Maybe her rough early years gave her the grit she needed
to make it through all those other tough experiences she’d have later in life. I guess we can
only speculate?
Jessop was unique in other ways too. When she turned 36, she finally decided to get
married. Her groom, 46-year-old John James Lewis, was supposedly a ship steward according
to the records. The wedding took place on October 29, 1923 – it was a Monday…and
probably a grey one at that if we’re talking fall in London! If you’re the superstitious
type, then you might not be surprised to find out that the marriage didn’t last very long
at all. Jessop never did have any children, which was pretty rare in an age when a “child-free”
lifestyle wasn’t really accepted.
Well, in any case, Jessop just put all her time and energy into her job. She really must’ve
loved what she did for a living since, despite everything she’d been through, she continued
to work as a ship stewardess for over 40 years. She even worked on a cruise line that took
her around the world twice! Luckily, she never encountered another disaster at sea again
after the Britannic. Three times must’ve been enough.
“Miss Unsinkable” (as she was dubbed) eventually retired to a cute little cottage
in the English countryside that she decorated with trinkets she’d collected during her
4 decades of work and adventure. And get this: Violet recalled a strange day when a woman
rang her up claiming to be the little baby that the stewardess had saved from the Titanic
so many years prior! But the mysterious caller hung up before any conversation got started.
Some people think that this was just a prank call, but Jessop swore that she never told
anyone about the baby she’d rescued so long ago. Now that’s pretty wild!
Passing at the age of 83 in 1971, I think one can say that Violet Jessop lived a full
and happy life giving her so many amazing tales to tell the world. Boy, would it have
been cool to sit down and have a chat with this incredible woman!
Do you know about other ordinary people who ended up having extraordinary lives? Let me
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