Gregory Robinson
A stewardess who worked on the Titanic survived another sinking ship years later.
One survivor's story which is almost too difficult to comprehend is that of Violet Jessop. She worked as a cruise-ship stewardess who survived two cruise-ship sinkings, including the Titanic.
Born on October 2, 1887, outside the Argentinian city of Bahí Blanca, according to the historical record publication The Archive, Jessop was one of nine children, however only six survived to infancy.
Her parents were immigrants from Ireland and her family moved to London when she was around 16 following the death of her father.
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Jessop followed in her mother’s footsteps by seeking work as a stewardess when she turned 21 in 1908.
Before working on the Titanic in 1912, Jessop survived a collision when the RMS Olympic, Titanic’s sister ship, collided with HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight on September 20, 1911. There were no deaths as a result of the accident.
Jessop was 24 when she joined the Titanic in 1912, according to the UK’s National Archives which led to the first of two brushes with death.
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The Titanic was one of the greatest disasters in maritime history when it sank 111 years ago on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg, killing over 1,500 people. Jessop, however, was one of the 700 survivors.
Just over four years later, on November 21, 1916, tragedy struck again.
Despite being on board the Titanic when it collided with an iceberg and sank, which would put off a number of people from ever doing the job again, Jessop returned to the sea to work. She was working on the HMS Britannic when the ship started to sink after striking a mine.
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Jessop, who almost seems like a cat with nine lives, was able to survive after getting on board a lifeboat. Not all the people who got on a lifeboat made it safely to dry land, as the turning of the ship’s propellers created a current that pulled some of the boats closer to the ship, leading to the shredding of some of the lifeboats and some injuries and deaths.
Although Jessop’s lifeboat was one of the ones that was pulled towards the ship, she managed to survive even after sustaining a head injury due to hitting her head against the boat’s keel, according to the National Archives.
She was one of the 1,000 people to survive the sinking.
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Jessop eventually put her life at sea behind her when she retired in 1960 at the age of 63, according to the National Archives report.
Jessop wrote a memoir, which was edited by John Maxtone-Graham after her death in 1971 due to heart failure.