An Extraordinary String of Bad Luck

One woman had a remarkable penchant for boarding doomed ships.

Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today’s fact should probably require a life jacket.

Photo via Harland & Wolff.

Violet Jessop was aboard the ill-fated RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic, and HMHS Britannic—and survived them all.

I get seasick at the drop of a hat, especially if the ocean is involved. So, I would never dedicate my life to working on a ship. Yet, that’s what Violet Jessop did, and it led to some pretty wild events.

Jessop was an Irish-Argentine ocean liner stewardess and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in the early 20th century. After surviving a childhood bout of tuberculosis that doctors thought would be fatal, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and began a life at sea.

Jessop’s first voyage was on the Orinoco in 1908. The ship made it to its destination without incident, though Jessop’s track record would not remain perfect. By 1911, she started working for the White Star liner RMS Olympic. At the time, the luxury ship was the largest civilian liner in the world.

The Olympic took off on September 20, 1911. En route, it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke. Everyone survived and the Olympic returned to port, a little dinged up and perhaps a bit embarrassed.

In April 1912, Jessop was transferred to the Olympic’s sister ship, the Titanic. This probably felt like an upgrade until the ship’s maiden voyage.

As history books, as well as Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio in the 1997 film (aptly named Titanic) taught us, there were many intimate moments and a very angry Billy Zane onboard the ship collided with an iceberg on April 14 and sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Jessop was sent to the upper deck to show non-English-speaking passengers how to respond to the situation. She boarded lifeboat 16 and was given a baby to hang onto; the baby’s mother found Jessop the next day (after the survivors had been rescued by the RMS Carpathia) and got her baby back. Jessop returned to Southampton after the Carpathia arrived in New York.

Shortly after, World War I began, and Jessop served as a stewardess and nurse for the British Red Cross. She was working on the hospital ship Britannic on November 21, 1916. The ship crossed over a German naval mine and sank in the Aegean Sea.

By this point, Jessop surely must have wondered how she could experience such bad luck. Or maybe she thought she had good luck, since the ship’s propellers were actively destroying lifeboats and nearly killed her and the other folks sitting in them. She jumped out of her lifeboat and, despite a head injury, survived the sinking. Arthur John Priest and Archie Jewell, two other Titanic survivors, also survived the Britannic sinking.

No one would have faulted Jessop for giving up and calling it a career. But she came back to work for White Star in 1920. She later joined Red Star Line and returned to Royal Mail Line, which is where she started her career.

Along the way, Jessop cruised around the world twice on Belgenland, the ship pictured above. She served another 30 years before retiring in 1950 and died in 1971 at 83 years old.

I find Jessop’s persistence and will to be quite inspiring. However, I hope your weekend gives you less turmoil.