17 Facts About Violet Jessop

Violet Constance Jessop was an Argentine woman of Irish heritage who worked as an ocean liner stewardess and nurse in the early 20th century.

Violet Jessop was the first of nine children, six of whom survived.

Violet Jessop spent much of her childhood caring for her younger siblings.

Violet Jessop became very ill as a child with what is presumed to have been tuberculosis, which she survived despite doctors' predictions that her illness would be fatal.

When Violet Jessop was 16 years old, her father died of complications from surgery and her family moved to England, where she attended a convent school and cared for her youngest sister while her mother was at sea working as a stewardess.

When her mother became ill, Violet Jessop left school and, following in her mother's footsteps, applied to be a stewardess.

Violet Jessop had to dress down to make herself less attractive to be hired.

Violet Jessop chose not to discuss this collision in her memoirs.

Violet Jessop continued to work on Olympic until April 1912, when she was transferred to sister ship Titanic.

Violet Jessop described in her memoirs how she was ordered up on deck to serve as an example of how to behave for the non-English speakers who could not follow the instructions given to them.

Violet Jessop was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and as the boat was being lowered, one of Titanics officers gave her a baby to look after.

Violet Jessop had to jump out of her lifeboat, resulting in a traumatic head injury which she survived.

Violet Jessop returned to work for White Star Line in 1920, before joining Red Star Line and then Royal Mail Line again.

When Violet Jessop was 36, she married John James Lewis, a fellow White Star Line steward.

Years after her retirement, Violet Jessop claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Violet Jessop if she had saved a baby on the night that Titanic sank.

Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971 at the age of 83.

The fictional main character meets Violet Jessop while working on the Titanic, who offers her a job and subsequently works with her on the Britannic.