Unsinkable Violet Jessop!

Violet Jessop's incredible fate is seen by pessimists as the evil fate of a woman who has been followed by shipwrecks all her life, while optimists perceive her as an "unsinkable" heroine who, despite her incredible adventures, lived to a ripe old age. Can her life story be called unhappy, or was this brave woman actually saved by happiness in unhappy life circumstances?

Violet Constance Jessop was born in Argentina on October 2, 1887, to an Irish immigrant family. Her life-threatening shipwrecks began as a child when she was predicted to have only a few more months to live. Doctors diagnosed her with tuberculosis. As the "disease of the poor urban population" at that time caused widespread public concern around the world due to the high mortality rate, it was a real miracle that the girl managed to fully recover. After her father's death, her mother decided to return to England with her six children, where she managed to get a job as a flight attendant, but when she also fell ill, Violet, as a 20-year-old girl, was forced to look for a job herself. Since working on overseas ships at that time also offered perspective to those who love travel and adventure, she decided to follow in her mother's footsteps. At that time, it was considered that a beautiful woman on a boat was a potential cause of trouble, so as a young and attractive girl, she was repeatedly rejected on the grounds that such a job meant experienced middle-aged women. As in the old Arab story of "destiny" that points everyone in the direction of when they might have to give up, Violet ignored the warnings and remained persistent. She went to White Star Line for an interview, trying to look neat, but old-fashioned and modest, which finally gave her the job she dreamed of. Not dreaming of what kind of adventure she is embarking on, she became a flight attendant of the company that owned the three most famous ships in the world: the British, the Titanic and the Olympic, and which, with slight differences, were constructed according to the same model.

She got her first job at the then largest civilian luxury ship, the Olympic. She happily boarded the first ship, which on September 20, 1911, found itself in the center of attention of a controversial and never completely reconstructed story. As the media wrote at the time, a British warship crashed into this giant and caused serious damage during the collision. Although it broke through in the underwater part where the water started to come, this beautiful ship miraculously managed to reach the port, and it successfully disembarked with the other passengers. Long after this event, journalists speculated about the real cause of the accident, but how it really happened is still unknown. What is known is that this event was the first, a real shipwreck for Jessopova. In her memoirs, she wrote that then, at the urging of a friend and family, a year later she applied for a crew member of the unsinkable Titanic, which she boarded on April 10, 1912. They sailed from the same port where there is still a monument that testifies to the shipwreck that did not survive the 549 citizens of that small town, Southampton. As a reminder, when this ship embarked on its first ocean voyage to New York, in an effort to conquer the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, the confident Captain Edward John Smith set off on a shorter than prescribed route, causing it to halve in an iceberg in the North Atlantic. and then, after only two hours, completely sunk. On that fateful April 15, more than 1,500 people lost their lives, and Jessop managed to survive this shipwreck by the game of fate. In that descent, her task was to be on the deck of the ship, training passengers how to put on lifebelts and who knows how many times she explains that only women and children can get into lifeboats. She was confused when during that action, at one point, one of her superiors pushed a small child into her arms and issued an order not only to board the boat number 16 with him, but also to save him. The idea of ​​a personal example shows passengers how to enter a lifeboat without panic, it saved her life again. When the ship Carpathia saved them eight hours later, completely exhausted and frozen, her child was snatched from her hands, which were on the verge of strength, by his mother, who, distraught with fear, did not even thank her.

This event has become an archetype of shipwreck that cannot be compared to any maritime accident, the name Titanic itself has become synonymous with sinking of all kinds imaginable in the collective consciousness, and to illuminate the whole event today in Branson, Missouri , USA), there is also a museum dedicated to this haunted ship. Although everyone would assume that this brave woman would give up ships forever after everything she went through, Jessop continued her battle with the sea during the First World War. She got a job as a nurse in the Red Cross on the ship Britannic, which sank in 1916 in the Aegean Sea. As she managed to survive this third big shipwreck, she got the nickname in public, Miss Unsinkable. True, when this ship ran into a mine and sank very quickly, she was not lucky enough to be in the lifeboat again, but she jumped into the sea at the right moment.

I jumped into the water and fell under the keel of the boat hitting my head on it. I don't even know how I managed to get out ... When I went to the doctor after a couple of years due to severe headaches, he stated that I had a skull fracture on that occasion!

As incredible as it sounds, Violet Jessup did not give up sailing even after this shipwreck. She continued to work on Royal Mail ships, until 1950 when she retired, and then retired to a house in the small town of Great Ashfield where she reached old age.

Whether she was accompanied by happiness or misfortune through life's adventures depends on the individual's view of reality. Miss Unsinkable chose an optimistic view of the world, which, despite all the storms and true shipwrecks, gave her the wind in her back until May 5, 1971, when she left us at the age of 84.