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Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an Irish-Argentine ocean liner stewardess and nurse in the early 20th century. Jessop is best known for having survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and her sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been aboard the eldest of the three sister ships, RMS Olympic ...
For the second time in four years, Violet watched one of the White Star Line’s mighty ocean liners sink beneath the waves. ‘The white pride of the ocean's medical world,’ Violet later recalled, ‘dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower.
Sep 15, 2017 · The Britannic sank in 57 minutes, killing 30 people and nearly taking Jessop’s life as well. As the ship sank, the propellers were still spinning and began sucking lifeboats under them. Jessop jumped out of her lifeboat to safety but received a traumatic head injury in the process.
Sep 4, 2023 · Designed to sink ships by ramming them with its bow, Hawke tore two holes in Olympic’s hull, flooding two compartments and twisting the propeller shaft. Despite the damage, both ships remained seaworthy.
- Overview
- ‘Fierce will to live’
- ‘Huge chunk of faith’
Before she became known as ‘Miss Unsinkable,’ Violet Jessop weathered a childhood plagued by illness.
On the morning of November 21, 1916, the British ocean liner Britannic—then outfitted as a hospital ship during World War I—was cruising the Aegean Sea on its way to the bloody battlefield of Gallipoli in Turkey. Nurse Violet Jessop had just come from morning Mass and was sitting down to breakfast when a muffled explosion shook the vessel. The Britannic had struck a German mine and was quickly sinking.
Ordered to the lifeboats, Jessop raced back to her cabin to gather a few valuables, including her prayer book and one particular personal care item. In her memoir, she recalled the words of a friend: “Never undertake another disaster without first making sure of your toothbrush.”
Jessop took that advice to heart because of past experience with maritime catastrophes, including the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic in 1912.
5:02
“There had always been much fun at my expense after the Titanic, when I complained of my inability to get a toothbrush,” she wrote in her memoir.
Born in Argentina in 1887, Violet Constance Jessop was the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants who relocated to South America and became sheep farmers. Her childhood was plagued by illness, including typhoid and tuberculosis, the latter of which nearly killed her. Her recovery was miraculous.
“Violet’s stubborn, almost fierce will to live healed her,” wrote the late John Maxtone-Graham, editor of her memoirs.
After her father died in 1903, 16-year-old Jessop and her family moved to England. To feed her brood, mother Katherine became a stewardess—essentially a servant for wealthy passengers—aboard Royal Mail Line steamships crossing the Atlantic.
After five years at sea, Katherine fell ill and Violet, now 21, became the family’s sole supporter. She followed in her mother’s wake and became a stewardess. Though considered too young for the position, Violet’s pleasant personality and facility with languages—she spoke English, Spanish and French—helped her land the job.
In 1911 the youthful stewardess signed on with the sumptuously appointed R.M.S. Olympic—the largest ship of its day and the first of a trio of luxury liners operated by the White Star Line.
All went well until September 20, 1911, when the passenger ship collided with the British cruiser H.M.S. Hawke. The Olympic suffered a major rip below the waterline but managed to limp home to England.
When the Great War erupted in 1914, Jessop volunteered to serve as a nurse. She worked in land hospitals for a time, then got the chance to serve at sea aboard the Britannic. When the vessel struck a mine near the Greek island of Kea in 1916, Jessop was in a lifeboat when it was drawn into the Britannic’s still-churning propellers. The water turned red with blood as people and boats were chopped to pieces by the massive screws.
Jessop jumped into the sea and escaped death but suffered a severe skull fracture and deeply gashed leg. Later, aboard a British destroyer, she saw a pair of familiar faces: two doctors beside whom she had knelt at Mass early that morning. “I know what saved you today, young lady,” said one.
Jessop spent the next three years recovering from her injuries, during which time the war ended and ocean liners resumed crossing the Atlantic. After surviving three disasters at sea, another person might have been concerned about running out of luck. Not Jessop. In 1920 she signed on once more with the restored Olympic and continued working as a stewardess until her retirement in 1950 at the age of 63. She died in England in 1971, age 83.
What gave her the grit to overcome whatever life hurled at her? “Just the will to live,” she once told a friend. “And a huge chunk of faith in divine intervention.”
- David Kindy
- 5 min
Apr 13, 2017 · On 20 September 1911, the Olympic collided with HMS Hawke, a British warship, specially designed to ram into other ships and sink them. The Olympic had its hull breached but still managed to sail into port. Violet Jessop was not harmed in the accident.
Apr 18, 2024 · Stewardess Violet Jessop survived both the sinking of the Titanic and that of her sister ship the Britannic in 1916.
