Episode 48: Nautical Escapes and the Life of an Unconquered Sea Voyager
Feb 05, 2024Episode 48
Marty Smarticus
In this captivating episode, we embark on a thrilling journey through the extraordinary life of Violet Jessup, the indomitable woman who defied the odds and survived not just one, but three maritime disasters, including the infamous sinking of the Titanic. Join us as we uncover the remarkable tale of "Miss Unsinkable," from her challenging early years in Argentina to her daring escapades on the high seas. With a dash of humor and culinary curiosity, we also explore the flavors of the Titanic era, whipping up a stew that transports us back in time. Prepare to be amazed by Violet's resilience, her unwavering spirit, and her enduring love for the ocean that shaped her life.
In this chapter, we delve into the heart-pounding moments when Violet Jessup faced the unimaginable - surviving the sinking of not just one, but two ships: the Titanic and the Britannic. From her near-death encounter with a lifeboat's propeller to her inspiring recovery, we witness the sheer strength and determination that made Violet a true survivor. Alongside her incredible resilience, we delve into her decision to remain single post-divorce, celebrating her independence and the luxury and danger of ocean liner travel. Join us as we reflect on the enduring human spirit and the extraordinary life of "Miss Unsinkable.
In this captivating episode, we embark on a thrilling journey through the extraordinary life of Violet Jessup, the indomitable woman who defied the odds and survived not just one, but three maritime disasters, including the infamous sinking of the Titanic. Join us as we uncover the remarkable tale of "Miss Unsinkable," from her challenging early years in Argentina to her daring escapades on the high seas. With a dash of humor and culinary curiosity, we also explore the flavors of the Titanic era, whipping up a stew that transports us back in time. Prepare to be amazed by Violet's resilience, her unwavering spirit, and her enduring love for the ocean that shaped her life.
In this chapter, we delve into the heart-pounding moments when Violet Jessup faced the unimaginable - surviving the sinking of not just one, but two ships: the Titanic and the Britannic. From her near-death encounter with a lifeboat's propeller to her inspiring recovery, we witness the sheer strength and determination that made Violet a true survivor. Alongside her incredible resilience, we delve into her decision to remain single post-divorce, celebrating her independence and the luxury and danger of ocean liner travel. Join us as we reflect on the enduring human spirit and the extraordinary life of "Miss Unsinkable.
History. Alright, enough with the Echo and Fanfare. You're here for history, right, and not that boring crap you learned in high school. This stuff's actually interesting, like things you've never heard about the Civil War, cleopatra, automobiles, monopoly, the Black Plague and more Fascinating stories, interesting topics and some downright weird facts from the past. It's a new twist on some stories you may know and an interesting look at some things you may have never heard. So grab a beer, kick back and enjoy. Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Smarticus Tells History. I am your host, smarticus, accompanied by my co-host Phoenix.
Speaker 1:
Hey.
Speaker 3:
Today we have a fascinating story to explore the incredible life of Violet Jessup. She was a woman who survived not one but three shipwrecks during the early 20th century, earning her the nicknames Queen of Sinking Ships and Miss Unsinkable. So buckle up as we dive into the remarkable life of Violet Jessup. But first we have food Food.
Speaker 2:
Now, as we discussed earlier, we've already done a stew, so don't be too surprised that we're doing stew yet again, but this is a stew that's more like what they were serving on the Titanic, which was one of the ships that she survived the wrecking of.
Speaker 3:
It was Yep, yep, she survived the Titanic, and then we'll get more into detail later. Yeah, so I made the same stew. It's just. I mean, it's hard to mess up stew. It's like it's almost like a pot roast. You throw it in the pot. It's mainly the same ingredients as a pot roast, only I think it just has more water in it or more beef broth or vegetable, you know, whatever liquid you put in it.
Speaker 1:
And there's also a little bit of booze.
Speaker 3:
There's a little bit of booze. I also added in Lowry's seasoned salt. Oh, I put on. I put that on everything 25% less sodium.
Speaker 2:
I saw that.
Speaker 3:
It was. It was 25% less sodium. Also, my other bottle that I bought because that one's almost empty is just regular. It's got all the salt, all the sodium in me yeah, all the sodium and but it's really good. I don't know if you've ever I'm sure you've had it Lowry's seasoned salt.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, I've had it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I lately I've been putting it on everything because it just, it just makes everything taste better.
Speaker 2:
Go for it, I get it.
Speaker 3:
That's, that's what I've been doing, but this is just. Yeah. We just did a regular and another stew. Yeah, Next time we'll do something different.
Speaker 2:
Probably yeah, but this one, this particular stew that I picked, was more likely what was served to the lower class people on the ship. I was not going to try my hand at foie gras because I'm a snob and that stuff scares me. If it's gray, I don't want to eat it.
Speaker 3:
So Caviour, I'm not into. I'm not into trying caviar either.
Speaker 2:
There's a part of me that wants to, but at the same time I don't want to.
Speaker 3:
I don't. I can live without fish eggs. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:
But it could be fun. I figured this is probably more close to what she was eating. Just a violet was eating when she was on the ship.
Speaker 3:
I was just going to say maybe if I put some season salt on it it might like Was that Rodney Carrington says something about uh, maybe you just need a little ketchup on it or something.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Maybe I just need some ketchup, who knows?
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Uh that's all we did this time. Yeah, nothing Super fancy or anything, so um.
Speaker 2:
We did contemplate possibly doing um arepas, because violet Jessup was born in Argentina.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
But Stu was a lot easier yeah.
Speaker 3:
And for one I already had some made. Um and uh we were going to need well, we had to, we were going to have to look up recipe. We kind of did this later in the late again.
Speaker 1:
Sorry about that.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Well, let's go ahead and get into Violet's story. Violet Jessup was born on October 2, 1887 in Argentina to Irish Catholic immigrant parents. They immigrated to South America to become sheep farmers, which I'm going to go ahead and say it because these people are gone. Why would you leave Ireland Okay, where everyone's a sheep farmer anyways to go to Argentina to be a sheep farmer? The only thing I can think is that if someone needed a drier climate, they were sick of the rain. Maybe I'm so confused about that.
Speaker 3:
Maybe they just wanted to I don't know get away from Ireland for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:
Maybe, 1887.
Speaker 3:
Was it around the?
Speaker 2:
potato famine era.
Speaker 3:
Well, that's what I was wondering. Maybe something, something was going on in Ireland at that time. I'm not sure. My Irish history is none Okay, it's nil, it doesn't exist. So.
Speaker 2:
Right, well, anyway, her childhood, sadly enough, was full of illness. The poor girl not only got hit by typhoid, but tuberculosis as well.
Speaker 3:
And that last one nearly killed her. John Maxden Graham, the editor of her memoirs, wrote about her miraculous recovery. That quote Violet Stubborn, almost fierce will to live, healed her end quote. And considering the cure for tuberculosis wasn't found until 1945, there's no arguing that, aside from life-threatening disease, it all went swimmingly until Mr Jessup died in 1903, when Violet was 16 years old. I'm assuming that was her father.
Speaker 2:
Yes Start. With an impressive number of children to take care of, mrs Jessup, violet's mother, decided they would move back to England. Along the way, she became a ship's stewardess. This set the tone for Violet's future career. When her mother became very ill At the age of 21, violet went to work as a stewardess herself, and even though she was considered too young for such a job, her pleasant personality and ability to speak English, Spanish and French made sure she got it.
Speaker 3:
That's pretty impressive. All right, I went to a bank when I was in the military One of the I was getting a loan, a small loan for something, and the loan officer there she spoke five languages, Dang, and I was geez, and I was like I was like you're, you're fluent in all those. She's like, oh yeah, she's like I have relatives that are from France, I have relatives that are from Germany, and there was she spoke I think she spoke Spanish, just because she wanted to learn. You know, she wanted to learn it.
Speaker 1:
That's wild.
Speaker 3:
But she spoke English, spanish, french, german and something else. Probably it was probably Japanese, because we were in Japan, right? So I was thinking probably you probably spoke Japanese. I don't remember 100 percent what the fifth one was, but I it was probably Japanese, so probably I was just like that's very impressive.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I knew a girl who Couple years ago she had what was it? She'd taken Spanish in high school and then kind of she kind of grew up around people who were speaking Spanish quite a bit as well, and then she went down to I think it was Brazil and lived down there and learned how to speak it, the way they speak it, and then she also learned Portuguese, which was how she was able to tell me because Portuguese isn't, I guess, very, very different from regular South American Spanish, other than it sounds Sorry, mexican Spanish sounds like they're drunk. She said so that it's kind of like they're slurring their words. That's so ridiculous. But then her family is also from Italy. So she went to visit some family in Italy, like during the time I knew her, and she said once you know the first two, pretty good, you can kind of muddle your way through Italian. And then she met someone who spoke Italian and French and so they combined all these languages together to have a full conversation for hours. Oh wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:
I was like that's ridiculous, but it makes sense because it's all Latin based, right, so it's got a lot of stuff in common.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, wow, that's crazy, yeah. Anyways, at the age of 24, violet's first major nautical encounter with disaster came in 1911, when she was on board the RMS Olympic, the largest luxury liner of its time and the first of three from the White Star Line Company and for all of you Leonardo DiCaprio fans, that name is probably ringing a bell. The Olympic was a sister ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic. The Olympic collided with the British warship HMS Hawk.
Speaker 2:
Remarkably, violet survived this collision with little more than a scare, while the Olympic limped home with a rip just above the waterline. While it was being fixed, she transferred to the ship that would bring her one of the most famous and tragic events in her life she became a stewardess on the RMS Titanic.
Speaker 3:
Four nights out from the harbor of Southampton, england. Violet had just gotten done saying her prayers in her birth and was climbing into bed when she heard low-rending crunching ripping sound. She wasn't too sure what it could be, but as she was on the ship that had been dubbed unsinkable, she was sure it wasn't anything to be concerned about. However, three hours later she was sitting in a live boat watching the huge vessel do just that Sink. We all know the story the Titanic sank and over 1500 people lost their lives. Violet, for her part, watching the horror show play out, kept thinking to herself surely it is all a dream Now. You'd think that her escape from the Titanic was already a remarkable tale.
Speaker 2:
but it didn't end there. War broke out in Europe in 1914 and she worked as a nurse on land hospitals for several years, until 1916, when she went back to sea on the RMS Britannic Interestingly enough, it was the third and last ship from the White Star Line that had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for the war effort.
Speaker 3:
The Britannic was converted into a hospital ship with a big red cross on the side. It traveled to the island of Limnos in Greece and took on sick and wounded soldiers all rather standard for warfare until November 21, 1916. While navigating the GNC, the ship struck a German mine and began to sink. This time, once, aware of the situation, she rushed to her birth, collected her prayer book and her toothbrush, she said in her memoirs a friend of hers had told her quote Never undertake another disaster without first making sure of your toothbrush. End quote. Violet also wrote that again. Quote there had always been much fun at my expense after the Titanic when I complained of my inability to get a toothbrush. End quote.
Speaker 2:
This is that great, I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I feel like I've heard that before too. Something to make sure you always have your toothbrush.
Speaker 1:
Oh.
Speaker 3:
I know that I'm thinking of a hitchhiker's guide to gals to make sure you always have your towel.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that's what. I'm thinking of Ford knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so now I know, to make sure you always have your towel and your toothbrush yeah, and you should be okay for safe for space in the sea.
Speaker 2:
That's right, you'll be good.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Horrifically enough, this time she was not safe in the lifeboat, as the still spinning propeller of the Britannic was drawing it closer. Try as they might, the people manning the boat couldn't get away, and the blades from their propeller chopped it into splinters. Along with many people, violet, along with many others, jumped into the sea to escape. She survived, but with a massive skull fracture and a deeply gashed leg.
Speaker 3:
I'm assuming she also got hit. Well, maybe not with. She might not get hit by the propeller, but from the no, she would have died from that, but I think probably some of the debris, the flying debris.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Man, that'd be scary.
Speaker 2:
That would be terrifying. Yeah, not really terrifying.
Speaker 3:
Later, after being rescued by a British destroyer, violet found herself eye to eye with two doctors who had been on the Britannic. Funny enough, she had knelt next to them at mass just hours before. Being members of the same faith and from the same down vessel. They were a happy sight. One of them, according to her memoirs, said I know what saved you today, young lady.
Speaker 2:
Sounds like a threat.
Speaker 3:
I know, I know what saved you today, young lady. I'm assuming he means God, but yes, yes. I mean, you know, it wasn't the propeller. Yeah, it wasn't the propeller.
Speaker 2:
I mean I feel like the way you said. It is like the guy was wagging his finger. I know, I know, I know what saved you, young lady.
Speaker 2:
That's right, and I'm going to let everybody know, Three years it took Violet to recover from her injuries, and by then the war was over. Ocean liners were once again on the waters going across the Atlantic, and with that luxury back in everyone's life, there was a need for stewardesses once more. Now you might think that, after surviving three major maritime disasters, violet would have decided to give up life at sea. But no, her adventurous spirit prevailed.
Speaker 3:
She continued her career working on various ships throughout her life, went on two world cruises after joining the Red Star Lines, the Belgian land. At the age of 36, she finally got married to a man named John James Lewis. He was also a steward for the Red Star Line. Unfortunately, they divorced a year later and she kept going until 1950 when she retired to great Ashfield, suffolk.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I was just impressive. I mean, really You're just gonna keep on keeping on. Maybe she wanted to die at sea, I don't know. I don't know, maybe it was a good living Back then. It probably was a good living. It was, yeah, I mean even today.
Speaker 3:
I mean it's not terrible. I mean right If you don't have a family or anything. I mean fishermen and stuff. I mean they make a lot of money. So yeah, well, they can. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:
But the thing was one of the things that always kind of blew my mind when I was researching this was she married one guy, stayed married to him for a year, decided it was not her bag and then never gets married again.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I was just thinking I was like I guess she didn't have children or anything. No, she had nieces and nephews because she had that whole mess of siblings.
Speaker 2:
But that was it and she was just like no, I'm good, I like being a little old lady. Yeah, I don't want no man messing up my stuff. He needs to go away, yeah.
Speaker 3:
She's that lady on the Titanic. She was in the Titanic. Yeah, yeah she was. She probably met that lady.
Speaker 2:
She probably served that lady. You know her food, or?
Speaker 3:
whatever, that's right. Yeah, I was just thinking of I think I saw her on the movie. I was just. Yeah, I was just thinking you know there's something about her that she's not going to be able to do.
Speaker 3:
I mean, I think she's going to be able to do that. I think you know they're sitting there saying you know these people are, you know the movie Titanic. You know they're sitting there and they're searching for this heart or whatever, and she's telling them the whole story about it. She's got it, she's wearing it right there in front of them and you know behind her cleavage and everything you know under her shirt and stuff. And she's just sitting there and she's just telling it. And then what does she do? She throws it in the water. I'm like what a bitch.
Speaker 2:
I remember watching it for the first time and going why, why would you do that?
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
There is no reason for that. That's just rude. It really was. You know what I mean. I'll give you something to look for. I'm going to give you something to look for. Geez Rose, could you be a little more hateful?
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:
Her name. I don't think her name was really Rose either. I think they made that up for the movie.
Speaker 2:
Rose doesn't exist. That woman doesn't exist.
Speaker 3:
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, rose doesn't exist. I was like the lady that they had there was a real person from the Titanic, but Rose herself doesn't exist. That's what I was getting at.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they made her up, some people don't know that Right, but I still don't understand why in the world they insisted on adding into the storyline that's that little heart of the ocean thing. The story is dramatic enough. You could swing a cat and hit 500 other people on that ship who had an interesting story to tell, right, and you had to go and make up this nonsense. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
That's Hollywood for you.
Speaker 2:
That's an interesting choice there, Cameron Good job?
Speaker 3:
I don't know.
Speaker 2:
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:
All right.
Speaker 2:
So back to the show. Sadly, Violet passed away from congenital heart failure on May 5th 1971, at the age of 83. She left behind an incredible legacy, not only as a survivor of historic shipwrecks, but also as a pioneer for women in the maritime industry. Violet's incredible resilience and the seemingly supernatural ability to survive childhood diseases and multiple shipwrecks have left historians and maritime enthusiasts astounded. Her life is a testament to courage and the human will to persevere even in the face of the most challenging and harrowing circumstances.
Speaker 3:
We conclude the remarkable story of Violet Jessup, where it is reminded that history is filled with stories of ordinary people who, when faced with extraordinary challenges, show incredible resilience and strength. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Smarticus Tells History. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. We will be back with more stories from the past. Until then, keep exploring.