As dranatic as these events are, they form only a minor part in the life by a remarkable woman. Violet Jessop was born in Buenos Aires to Irish parents, spoke Spanish, had a pet armadillo, and lost part of a lung due to TB during her early years in Argentina. Her brothers and sisters suffered numerous illnesses, some of which were fatal: scarlet fever, diphtheria, meningitis, smallpox, rheumatic fever, and malaria.
She was 16 when her father died. Her mother moved the family to England, and went to work as a stewardess on a steamship line. Eventually Violet followed, and thus began a 42-year career at sea, during which she became the family breadwinner. She worked for several lines -- the White Star, the Red Star, and the Royal Mail -- and saw a good deal of the world.
Titanic
Three chapters are devoted to her experiences on the Titanic.
She has kind words for Thomas Andrews, "beloved designer" of the ship
because of the consideration he showed for the crew in his plans.
Violet was in lifeboat 18. As she was boarding it, a baby was thrust into arms, and later once she was aboard the ship that rescued survivors, the Carpathia, a woman snatched the baby away from her without a word. In an epilogue we learn that just before she died, she received a mysterious phone call from a person who claimed to be that child.
Britannic
Four-and-a-half years later, during WWI she signed up as a nurse, and eventually found herself on the Britannic. It was being used as a hospital ship when it hit a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea. The captain kept her under way after the explosion, trying to make for shallower water, without realizing that the propellers were chopping up lifeboats and people in the water. Violet's head was struck three times by a prop,
Two chapters are devoted to this and the aftermath. Violet suffered a fractured skull (which she did not discover until years afterward) and a "leg pierced to the bone, which took nearly three months to heal." Twenty-eight lives were lost.
Life at Sea
What I enjoyed most about the book were Violet's observations of shipboard life. She relates a number of amusing anecdotes involving crew and passengers. A drunken steward hid under a passenger's bed. During Prohibition a woman took advantage of her ample bosom to smuggle ashore "a quart of champagne in her 'balcony'."
Then there was the time when a passenger died while at sea, and a friend kept company all night with the body and the widow in her cabin, until the ship rolled and the body fell off the bed and pinned her to the floor.
But eventually the long hours and hard work took their toll on Violet. She wearied of the "exacting demands" and "aggravating ways" of passengers.
And because she was attractive she had to put up with the unwelcome attentions of both passengers and crew. She turned down several offers of marriage. A steward ran amok with a knife after she refused to kiss him. A ship's captain, after being rebuffed, dismissed her for being a flirt. During the WWI she ate great quantities of garlic-laden salami to discourage an ardent Danish sailor.
Ironically the one man she was interested in, a gifted mechanic from Australia, was too shy to make a formal proposal.
The Book
Her memoir went unpublished, but the year before her death she was visited by John Maxtone-Graham, who was conducting research about the golden age of transatlantic liners. He took on the task of editing Violet's book, and has provided many useful details about her life.
One chapter has gone missing, and there is no mention of a marriage, which Maxtone-Graham learned from Violet's niece. She married "so briefly and disastrously that not even her husband's name remains extant with the family."
It includes 24 pages of black-and-white photos.
