Violet Jessop's life is an inspiring story of survival. Born in 1887 in
Argentina, the eldest child of Irish immigrants, at the age of 21 she
became the breadwinner for her widowed mother and five siblings when she
commenced a career as a stewardess and nurse on some of the most famous
ocean going vessels of the day. Throughout her 40 year time at sea she
survived an unbelievable series of events including the sinking of the
TITANIC. "One awful moment of empty, misty blackness enveloped us in its
loneliness, then an unforgettable, agonizing cry went up from 1500
despairing throats, a long wail and then silence and our tiny craft
tossing about at the mercy of the ice field." For most people one
sinking would be enough. But four years later Violet, now a nurse with
the British Red Cross, was on board the World War I hospital ship
BRITANNIC when it struck a mine and sank to the bottom of the Aegean. To
her, this disaster was even more horrifying-- "Just as life seeming
nothing but a whirling, choking ache, I rose to the light of day, my
nose barely above the little lapping waves. I opened my eyes on an
indescribable scene of slaughter, which made me shut them again to keep
it out." By the end of her story we have a met a woman who could handle
whatever life threw at her with determination and good humor. She knew
that only by her own strength of character would she survive. But
Titanic Survivor is much more. A unique autobiography for those who want
to know how it really felt, a story that could be told only by a Titanic
Survivor.
