Going to sea in the early 20th century was always a risky bet. If your massive ocean liner hit a storm or a hidden reef you were entirely on your own. Surviving a catastrophic sinking was considered an absolute miracle. But a young ocean liner stewardess named Violet Jessop somehow looked death directly in the face three separate times and simply refused to drown.
She worked for the famous White Star Line during an era when they were building the largest moving objects in human history. Supplying these massive floating palaces required incredible maritime logistics. The intense ship chandling operations involved loading thousands of tons of high end provisions just to keep the wealthy passengers comfortable. Violet worked right in the middle of this massive supply chain making sure everyone was taken care of. But her career quickly turned into a terrifying nightmare.
The First Massive Collision
Her terrifying streak of bad luck started in the fall of 1911. She was working aboard the RMS Olympic. It was the largest luxury ship in the entire world at the time. They were cruising through a narrow straight near the Isle of Wight when things went completely wrong.
The giant ocean liner accidentally collided with a massive British warship. The military cruiser completely smashed into the side of the Olympic and tore a giant hole in the hull below the waterline. The luxury ship flooded heavily but miraculously managed to limp back to the port without completely sinking. Violet packed her bags and stepped off the damaged vessel without a single scratch. Most people would have quit the ocean forever right then and there. Violet just waited for her next assignment.
The Most Famous Disaster in History
A few months later her friends convinced her to take a job on a brand new ship that was supposedly completely unsinkable. Violet was hesitant but she finally agreed and packed her bags for the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
She was asleep in her bunk when the massive ship side swiped the infamous iceberg in the freezing dark of the North Atlantic. She got dressed and went up to the massive wooden deck to help confused passengers who did not understand the extreme danger they were in. The officers ordered her into one of the wooden lifeboats just to show the terrified women that it was actually safe to get in. Right before the small boat was lowered into the freezing black ocean a desperate officer shoved a crying baby into her arms.
Violet sat freezing in the tiny wooden boat for eight hours holding a stranger’s baby while she watched the greatest ship ever built snap in half and disappear into the water. She was eventually rescued by a passing ship the next morning. A random woman grabbed the baby out of her arms on the rescue deck and ran away without saying a single word.
A Hospital Ship Turns Deadly
You would think surviving the Titanic would be enough trauma for one lifetime. But when World War I broke out Violet joined the British Red Cross as a nurse. She was assigned to a massive floating hospital ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was actually the Britannic. It was the exact same model of ship as the Titanic but painted white with giant red crosses.
In the winter of 1916 the massive hospital ship hit a hidden underwater explosive mine planted by a German submarine. The explosion ripped a massive hole in the bow and the ship started sinking incredibly fast. The captain tried to drive the sinking ship toward a nearby island to save the crew. But keeping the massive engines running while the ship sank created a totally new nightmare.
The giant bronze propellers rose out of the water and started spinning wildly right near the escaping lifeboats. The massive metal blades actually sucked two of the wooden lifeboats directly into the spinning machinery completely destroying them. Violet was in one of those boats.
She realized she was about to be pulled into the deadly blades. She jumped out of the wooden boat at the very last second and dove deep underwater. She struck her head violently on the bottom of the ship but somehow managed to float back to the surface. The Britannic sank to the bottom of the sea in less than an hour. Violet was pulled from the water bleeding but completely alive.
She became known as Miss Unsinkable. She eventually went right back to work on massive ocean liners and spent another thirty years at sea before retiring. She proved that absolutely nothing could keep her off the water.
References: You can read the full breakdown of her incredible survival story over at National Geographic.