Titanic Survivor by Violet Jessop - 2004

Sheridan House, 2004. Softcover. Fine. Glossy illustrated softcover. Fine. 238 pp. with bibliography, index. Illustrations. Violet Constance Jessop (1887-1971) was an ocean liner stewardess and nurse who survived both the Titanic (1912) and Britannic (1916) disasters. She began working for the White Star Line in 1911 and was onboard the Olympic when it collided with the British warship Hawke in that year. She was transferred to the Titanic for its maiden voyage and as member of that crew remained on deck to assist non-English speaking passangers to lifeboats (Jessop was an Irish-Argentine born in Argentina and thus bi-lingual). She eventually was placed in lifeboat 16 and handed a baby that she brought to the Carpathia where it was reunited with its mother. During the First World War she joined the British Red Cross and was aboard the HMHS Britannic ( sister ship to the Titanic and Olympic that had been converted to a hospital ship). The vessel struck a German mine in the Aegean Sea and sank in less that an hour. The ship's propellers tore apart several of the lifeboats and Jessop sustained a head injury when forced to jump from the boat she was on.