Profile of the Day: Violet Jessop

Posted April 10, 2012 by Amanda | 2 Comments

Violet Jessop

Today we highlight Violet Jessop, who was a stewardess aboard the Titanic. Amazingly, Jessop survived three different maritime disasters within a span of five years. In 1911, while working as a stewardess on the HMS Olympic, the ship collided with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke, causing major flooding and damage. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Coincidentally, the Olympic was commanded by Captain Edward Smith, who would later captain the Titanic.

On April 10, 1912, Jessop boarded the Titanic as a first class stewardess. After the ship struck the iceberg, Jessop was ordered to the deck and placed in lifeboat #16 to set a good example to the passengers. Once she was one the lifeboat, she was quickly handed a baby to look after by a Titanic officer. She recalled that once she was on board the Carpathia, a woman grabbed the baby and ran off with it without saying a word.

Disaster struck again in 1916 while she was serving as a nurse on the HMHS Britanica, the sister ship of the RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic. The ship struck an underwater German mine and sank with the loss of 30 lives. Despite the chaos, Jessop managed to grab her toothbrush, saying later that it was the one thing she missed most immediately following the sinking of the Titanic.

Violet Jessop’s family tree is not yet connected to Geni’s World Family Tree. Perhaps you can join the RMS Titanic project and help connect her and other Titanic passengers to over 60 million profiles on Geni!