Violet Jessop
Violet Constance Jessop | |
---|---|
Born | Bahía Blanca, Argentina | 2 October 1887
Died | 5 May 1971 Great Ashfield, Suffolk, England | (aged 83)
Occupation(s) | Maritime stewardess, nurse |
Spouse |
John J. Lewis
(m. 1923; div. 1924) |
Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an
Early life
Born on 2 October 1887, near
RMS Olympic
In 1911, Jessop began working as a stewardess for the White Star liner RMS Olympic.[7] Olympic was a luxury ship that was the largest civilian liner at that time.[3] Jessop was on board on 20 September 1911, when Olympic left from Southampton and collided with the British warship HMS Hawke.[1][7] There were no fatalities[1] and, despite damage, the ship was able to make it back to port without sinking.[7] Jessop chose not to discuss this collision in her memoirs. She continued to work on Olympic until April 1912, when she was transferred to sister ship Titanic.[5]
RMS Titanic
Jessop boarded
HMHS Britannic
In the
While Britannic was sinking, Jessop and other passengers were nearly killed by the ship's propellers that were shredding lifeboats that collided with the propellers.[9] Jessop had to jump out of her lifeboat, resulting in a traumatic head injury which she survived.[1][5] In her memoirs, she described the scene she witnessed as Britannic went under: "The white pride of the ocean's medical world ... dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths."[9] Arthur John Priest and Archie Jewell, two other survivors of the Titanic, were also onboard and both survived.
Later life
Jessop returned to work for White Star Line in 1920,
Years after her retirement, Jessop claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Jessop if she had saved a baby on the night that Titanic sank. "Yes," Jessop replied. The voice then said "I was that baby," laughed, and hung up. Her friend and biographer
Jessop died of
In popular culture
In the 1958 film
In the 1979 television movie S.O.S. Titanic, she was portrayed as an elderly stewardess played by Madge Ryan.
In the 2000 television movie Britannic, the main character is Vera Campbell (played by Amanda Ryan), a woman who is apprehensive about travelling on Britannic because she had survived the sinking of Titanic four years earlier.
In 2006, "Shadow Divers" John Chatterton and Richie Kohler led an expedition to dive HMHS Britannic. The dive team needed to accomplish a number of tasks including reviewing the expansion joints. The team was looking for evidence that would change the thinking on RMS Titanic's sinking. During the expedition, Rosemary E. Lunn[13] played the role of Violet Jessop, re-enacting her jumping into the water, from her lifeboat which was being drawn into Britannic's still turning propellers.
The character of Jessop is featured in the Chris Burgess stage play Iceberg – Right Ahead!, staged for the first time
In the 2020 Alma Katsu historical horror novel The Deep, Jessop is a secondary character. The fictional main character meets Jessop while working on the Titanic, who offers her a job and subsequently works with her on the Britannic.
See also
- Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave, a British sailor who survived three consecutive sinkings in the action of 22 September 1914.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Damon, Duane (April 2012). "Angel of the White Star Violet Jessop". Cobblestone. Vol. 33, no. 4. p. 16.
- ^ Kaplan, David A.; Underwood, Anne (25 November 1996). "The iceberg cometh". Newsweek. Vol. 128, no. 22.
- ^ ISBN 1-57409-184-0.
- ^ "Violet Jessop Biography". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ The Women's Review of Books. 15: 9.
- S2CID 146446083.
- ^ a b c d Upton, Emily (28 January 2014). "The woman who survived all three disasters aboard the sister ships: The Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic". Today I Found Out.com. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- Naval History. 26 (2): 48.
- ^ Time International(South Pacific Edition). No. 43. p. 72.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4738-6542-6.
- ^ https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/assad-alexander-thomas-tannous.html
- ISBN 978-1-4617-4032-2.
- ^ "Remembering Britannic's Violet Jessop". The Underwater Marketing Company. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
- ^ "Iceberg – Right Ahead!". Ovation Theatres. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
External links
- Violet Jessop at Find a Grave
- "Violet Constance Jessop". Encyclopedia Titanica.
- "England via Plymouth" (PDF). Plymouth.gov.uk. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2015.
Violet Jessop third from left; with fellow Titanic Stewardesses at Millbay Dock, Plymouth England after return on SS Lapland April 1912