Violet Jessop

**Violet Constance Jessop** (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an ocean liner stewardess and nurse who achieved fame by surviving the disastrous sinkings of both the RMS *Titanic* and the HMHS *Britannic* in 1916. In addition, she had been on board the RMS *Olympic*, their sister ship, when it collided with the protected cruiser HMS *Hawke* in 1911.

## White Star Line

Violet didn't want to work for White Star because she didn't like the idea of sailing the North Atlantic run due to the weather conditions, and she had heard stories about the demanding passengers on that run. But didn't really have a choice, since her mother was ill, and money was needed.

Nevertheless Violet, who had grey-blue eyes, auburn hair and spoke with an Irish accent became a stewardess for the White Star Line working 17 hours a day, and being paid £2 10s. per month. She served on board the *Olympic* before joining the *Titanic* and was aboard the Olympic when she was in collision with HMS *Hawke* in 1911. Violet was happy on the *Olympic* and loved every minute of the voyage. One of the passengers even proposed to her, as she was a very beautiful lady. Her employer even was worried about this, on her job interview. She later personally told how she enjoyed her time on Olympic and how amazed she was by all the luxury and the wonderful looking interiors. She didn't really want to join the *Titanic* but was persuaded by her friends who thought it would be a 'wonderful experience'.

## Titanic

So Violet, 'dressed in a new ankle-length brown suit' set out in a horse-drawn cab to join the brand new ship at her berth in Southampton. She was a First Class Stewardess. She was even more impressed by Titanic than Olympic.

On 14 April, the *Titanic* struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and started sinking. Violet described in her memoirs that she was ordered up on deck, because she was to set a good example to the foreign-speaking people (they did not speak English), where she watched as the crew loaded the lifeboats. She was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and, as the boat was being lowered, one of the *Titanic*′s officers gave her a baby to look after. The next morning, Violet and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the Template:RMS. According to Violet, while on board the *Carpathia*n, a woman grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off with it without saying a word.

In her memoirs she says that on *Titanic*'s maiden voyage she brought a copy of a translated Hebrew prayer that an old Irish woman had given her. Upon settling down in her bunk she found that prayer and read it, then made her roommate read it. (Presumably, according to editor John Maxtone-Graham, her roommate was stewardess Elizabeth Leather.) It was a strangely worded prayer that Violet says was supposed to protect her against fire and water. Violet was a devout Catholic who carried a rosary in her apron and believed strongly in the power of prayer.

Among the people she mentioned in her memoirs was Thomas Andrews and, like all other crew members it seems, she greatly admired him. Mr. Andrews was the only person who seemed to heed the requests of the crew for improvements in the crew's quarters. The stewards and stewardesses were quite pleased with their quarters on the *Titanic*. "Often during our rounds we came upon our beloved designer going about unobtrusively with a tired face but a satisfied air. He never failed to stop for a cheerful word, his only regret that we were 'getting further from home.' We all knew the love he had for that Irish home of his and suspected that he longed to get back to the peace of its atmosphere for a much needed rest and to forget ship designing for awhile." Violet claims to have been friends with Scottish violinist Jock Hume, one of the few people working on the ship whom she identifies by his real name.

She said that it was her habit to take in the fresh air on deck before retiring for the night, and that "If the sun did fail to shine so brightly on the fourth day out, and if the little cold nip crept into the air as evening set in, it only served to emphasize the warmth and luxuriousness within."

## *Britannic*

During the First World War, Violet served as a stewardess for the British Red Cross. On the morning of 21 November 1916, she was on board HMHS *Britannic*, the younger sister ship of *Titanic and Olympic* that had been converted into a hospital ship, when the ship apparently struck a mine and, with all the portholes open for ventilation, started to sink in the shallow waters of the Aegean Sea. While *Britannic* was sinking Jessop made sure to grab her toothbrush before leaving her cabin and left the ship in Lifeboat 2. She and other passengers were nearly killed by the ship's propellers that were sucking lifeboats, that left before the captain had ordered to evacuate, under the stern. Jessop had to jump out of her lifeboat. She, nevertheless, was sucked under the water and struck her head on the ship's keel before surfacing and being rescued by a lifeboat. She later stated that the cushioning, due to her thick auburn hair, helped save her life.

## Later life

After the war, Violet continued to work for the White Star Line, before joining the Red Star Line and then the Royal Mail Line again. During her tenure with Red Star, Violet went on two around the world cruises on that company's largest ship, the *Belgenland*. In her late 30s, Violet had a brief marriage, and in 1950 she retired to Great Ashfield, Suffolk. Years after her retirement, Violet claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Violet if she saved a baby on the night that the *Titanic* sank. "Yes," Violet replied. The voice then said "I was that baby," laughed, and hung up. Her friend, and biographer John Maxtone-Graham said it was most likely some children in the village playing a joke on her. She replied, "No, John, I had never told that story to anyone before I told you now." Records indicate that the only baby on boat 16 was Assad Thomas, who was handed to Edwinda Troutt, and later reunited with his mother on the Carpathia.

Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971.