Violet Jessop- Miss Unsinkable is considered by many as the luckiest woman ever. Why so ? Let's find out in the article.
Violet Jessop- Luckiest Person Ever
Background:
The White Star Line truly went through a very bad time in the early 1900s, but it wasn't a bad time for a woman named Violet Jessop also known as Miss unsinkable.
White Star Line was a British shipping company founded in 1845. It was famous for its luxurious liners. The company had much success with its first liner the “Oceanic” in 1870.
Until 1895, the company owners were very much encouraged by the success and ordered three more ships to be built from Harland and Wolff, the same company that had manufactured the “Oceanic” true to their belief.
Three Famous Ships:
One of the three ships became the most famous vessel of all time but little did they know that all three ships would have repeated accidents or end up in a disastrous calamity. All three sister ship were constructed in Ireland.
The first being the “Olympic”, it operated from 1911 until 1935 and was the only ship out of the other two that didn't sink, although it went through two accidents. The Olympic collided with other ships twice during his long run.
The second ship is the most famous of all the “Titanic”, which started its voyage on April 10, 1912, only to sink after hitting an iceberg five days later.
The last and the largest of the three ships was the “Britannic”, which lasted for about a year until it hit a mine in the Aegean Sea, that was planted by a German submarine during World War-I.
These unfortunate ship disasters took the lives of 1500. 33 people there were lucky survivors but none of them were like Violet Jessop.
Violet Jessop had survived the sinking of the “Titanic” and the “Britannic” and also had been on board the “Olympic” when it had one of its accidents.
Early Life:
Violet Jessop had an extraordinarily lucky life born in 1887 in Argentina. She was the sixth out of nine children that her parents had that survived infancy. Growing up, she contracted tuberculosis and doctors had predicted that her illness would be fatal but miraculously she survived.
It and of course, she survived the most famous ocean disasters of all time. After the death of her father, Violet’s mother moved with the whole family to England, where she began working as a stewardess on a ship.
At the time, Violet was attending a convent school but when her mother became ill, she decided to step in and become a ship stewardess herself.
In the early 1900s, most of the women, who were working as ship stewardesses were middle-aged and Violet Jessop was only 21 years old at the time.
She had many struggles in getting a job as employers believed her youth and good looks would cause problems with the crew and passengers and get in the way of her work.
As a matter of fact, throughout her career, she had received at least three marriage proposals, even from a wealthy first-class passenger.
RMS Olympic
For a short time, she worked on the “Orinoco a Royal Mail line” steamer until she was hired by the “White Star Line” in 1908.
In 1910, she began working on the “Olympic” and a year later the “Olympic” collided with “HMS Hawke”- a British Warship.
Both the ships had considerable damage but there were no fatalities and the ship did not sink and was able to make it back to port.
RMS Titanic
Violet was able to get off the ship without being harmed however, this did not discourage violet, and just seven months later, she went back to work with “White Star Line” and this time on a ship titled the “Unsinkable Titanic”.
In her memoirs, she shared her experience of the time. The “Titanic” struck and iceberg and started sinking, she was ordered upon the deck, where she watched women sing goodbye to their husbands before being put in lifeboats with their children.
The ship officers had later access stewardesses including her to get on to the boats to show some of the women. It was safe while she was on one of the lifeboat 16.
She was handed over a baby which she took care of the whole night until she and the survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia.
The next morning, a woman grabbed the baby out of her hand and ran off. Violet assumed that it may have been the baby's mother.
That was the second time that violet had a near-death experience, but somehow she was not affected and joked that she missed her toothbrush that she left on the Titanic. At this point, anyone in her place would stop getting on ships but not Violet.
HMHS Britannic
Just before World War-I, Violet decided to serve as a nurse on board the “Britannic”. The ship transported wounded soldiers from the Mediterranean back to Great Britain and violet was working as a nurse for british red cross at the mobile hospital.
The ship completed five successful voyages before it ran into her mind and started to sink. This time, Violet was unable to reach a lifeboat and jumped overboard although she survived; she, unfortunately, stuck her head under the ship's keel.
Years later when she went to the doctor because of severe headaches, she discovered that she once had a fracture on her skull.
Luck favored Violet a bit too much and she continued to joke that this time she remembered to grab her toothbrush before jumping off-board, unlike the Titanic.
After the three major incidents that had occurred in such a short time in her life. It still wasn't enough to deter Violet.
She didn't experience anymore ship accidents or disasters after that but she continued to work on a ship but this time for Red Star Online and Royal Mail mine for doing world cruises.
Retirement:
For the coming years of her life, she finally retired at the age of 61 and spent the rest of her life gardening and raising chickens.
One day she received a strange phone call from an unknown woman who asked her if she had saved a baby on the day of the Titanic tragedy. Violet answered she was. And the woman then went on to say that she was the baby that violet had saved and hung up.
Violet believed that it really must have been her and she hadn't told the story of the baby to anyone.
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