Violet Jessop was an Argentine citizen of Irish descent who survived the sinking of two ocean liners in the early 20th century. She was also on board another ship that suffered serious damage when it collided with a mine on the high seas. Because of these events, she became known as the “unsinkable lady” (M iss unsinkable).
By the early 1900s, the White Star Line shipping company had launched to take over the sea passenger market. To this end, it acquired 3 ships with similar characteristics: the RMS Olympic, the RMS Titanic and the RMS Britannic. This Argentine-Irish woman made a large part of her career with this company.
Violet Jessop worked on those ships as a purser. All of them suffered accidents on the high seas and only the first of them (the Olympic) did not sink. Fortunately, Violet emerged unscathed from all these disasters. Later, after forty-two years at sea, she retired to a 16th-century thatched cottage in Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England.
Biography of Violet Jessop,
Early years
Violet Constance Jessop was born in the pampas near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, on October 2, 1887. She was the eldest daughter of Irish emigrants and sheep farmers William and Katherine Jessop. Due to her older sister status, she devoted a large part of her childhood to caring for her 8 younger siblings.
As a child she became seriously ill with what is presumed to be tuberculosis. Fortunately for her, and despite medical predictions that the disease would be fatal, Violet was able to recover.
When he was 16, his father died from complications from surgery. His mother then moved to England and began working as a purser on a transatlantic passenger line. For her part, Violet attended a nun's school and looked after her siblings while her mother was at sea working as a stewardess.
Later, as his mother fell ill, he dropped out of school and, following in her footsteps, applied to be a flight attendant as well. At age 21, she got her first job with the Royal Mail Line aboard the Orinoco in 1908. To be hired, Violet had to dress to look less attractive than she naturally was.
In the early 1900s, most of the women who worked on passenger ships were middle-aged. Employers believed that Violet's youth and good looks could cause problems for her with the crew and passengers. In fact, while working on the ships, he received at least 3 marriage proposals.
The olimpic
In 1910, after a brief stint aboard the Orinoco, Violet was assigned to work aboard the passenger ship RMS Olympic. The ocean liner belonged to the White Star Line company and was sailing on Atlantic Sea routes known for their bad weather conditions.
On September 20, 1911, Violet Jessop was aboard the Olympic when it and the British warship HMS Hawke accidentally collided. Both ships suffered considerable damage. In particular, the ship Violet was on suffered a hull breach below the waterline, but she disembarked unharmed.
Despite the damage, the RMS Olympic was miraculously able to return to port without sinking. In her memoirs, written many years later, Violet made no reference to this part of her life.
The Titanic
Two years later, White Star Line was looking for a crew to serve passengers aboard its latest creation, the RMS Titanic. This transatlantic ship had been built with the most advanced techniques of the time, and its builders claimed that it could not sink.
At the age of 24, Violet Jessop embarked on the RMS Titanic on April 10, 1912 as a purser. 4 days later, the ship collided with an iceberg while sailing the North Atlantic. As a result of the damage to the hull, it began to sink rapidly. Following the officers' orders, Violet made her way to the lifeboat area.
In less than 2 hours, the "unsinkable" Titanic, - along with 1500 people - was swallowed by the sea. Jessop was able to board lifeboat number 16 and emerge from the trance alive. In his memoirs, he said that, while in the boat, one of the officers placed a child on his lap for him to take care of.
The next morning, all the survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia. According to Violet Jessop's account, while on board the Carpathia, a woman approached her. Without saying a word, he grabbed the infant he was holding and ran off. She never heard from that child again.
The Britannic
Violet Jossep did not leave the ships after the Titanic disaster. In the run-up to World War I, she decided to serve as a nurse aboard another sister ship to the Titanic, the RMS Britannic.
This ship, also owned by White Star Line, operated on the Aegean Sea route. On one of its voyages, this ship came across a mine that had been planted by a German submarine. The ship suffered substantial damage, and quickly began to sink.
This time, Violet wasn't lucky enough to have a lifeboat nearby. As the ship was sinking too fast, he had to jump overboard and only had time to grab his toothbrush. Once it fell into the water, it was sucked under the keel hitting its head.
Violet Jessop related that many years later she had to see a doctor because of persistent headaches. They were both surprised to discover that at some point she had suffered a skull fracture.
Last years
This latest disaster also didn't make Violet wander away from the ships and the sea. After the war, ships took a boom as a means of intercontinental transport, especially cruise ships.
Violet left her job with the White Star Line, started working for the Red Star Line, and kept cruising the world for several years.
At the age of 61, Violet Jessop retired and spent the rest of her life growing vegetables and raising chickens. He died on Wednesday, May 5, 1971 from heart failure when he was 84 years old. His remains were interred in Hartest Cemetery, Suffolk, England.
References
- Encyclopedia titanica. (s / f). Miss Violet Constance Jessop. Taken from encyclopedia-titanica.org.
- Flank, L. (2015, July 05). The strange story of "miss unsinkable" Violet Jessop. Taken from lflank.wordpress.com.
- Biography. (s / f). Violet Jessop Biography. Taken from biography.com.
- Upton, E. (2014, January 28). The woman who survived all three disasters aboard the sister ships: The Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic. Taken from todayifoundout.com.
- Jessop, V. (2012). Titanic Survivor. London: Rowman & Littlefield.