Violet Jessop's memories of the Titanic

 

    For this blog I will focus on the memoir of Violet Jessop who survived both the sinking of the Titanic and the Britannic. Jessop wrote down her memoir in the early 1930's, about twenty years after the Titanic sank in 1912. Her writings were kept by family members until they asked historian John Maxtone-Graham to edit and publish them in 1997. Although Jessop's memoir is definitely unique and interesting, only a small part of the book addresses the focus of my topic being the events that occurred during the sinking of the Titanic. This is why for this blog and my research paper I will focus on two chapters of the book titled Titanic and also Into the Lifeboat found on pages 115-136. I will give a summary of the highlights of the memoir and then my own analysis at the end.
     
     Violet Jessop had been a stewardess for awhile before she joined the Titanic's crew. She was in awe of the ship and was especially moved by the ships building director Thomas Andrews who had asked the crew how he could improve on their living quarters and make them more comfortable and home like. She had described her past living quarters on other ships as being "wretched" and "infested with bugs," which is why she felt so privileged to have a nice bedroom (117). For several pages Jessop described the first class passengers who although she was excited to meet because of their prestige, she also dreaded assisting many of them because they were extremely high maintenance and arrogant. When the Titanic hit an iceberg, Jessop wrote that she had been reciting prayers from her prayer book. She and her roommate, Ann, stayed in the room not wanting to overreact or believe that the ship had hit something although that's what they feared. A male steward came to their room and told them the ship was sinking. Jessop then put on her uniform and went door to door to assist passengers with putting on their life jackets and making sure they all went to the top deck to the life boats. She kept telling them what her superiors told her that it was only a "precautionary measure" (127).  She went back down to her room after taking care of the passengers when she finally realized the severity of the situation. The same male steward named Stanley came to her room and said "My God, don't you realize that this ship will sink, that she has struck an iceberg, that you have to follow the rest upstairs as quickly as possible?" (127).

     Jessop's account is important to my research because she reveals reasons why many people were hesitant to get on the lifeboats. Her account confers with some of my other primary sources who have said that many women were reluctant to leave their husbands and that in the distance they could see another ship which they thought would surely come to their rescue. Her story is interesting because although she was a crew member, she was saved by several of her male crew members who encouraged her to get on a lifeboat. Jessop did not distinguish much between the first and second class passengers although it is apparent that she attended primarily to the first class. When she reached the top deck, she waited until other women and children were loaded onto the boats before one of her male crew member friends told her to get on a lifeboat. On the boat before her own, Jessop witnessed a man jump onto it from the railing while it was being lowered down, something that the crowd greatly disapproved of. She then saw a steward bring up a group of third class passengers, most of whom did not speak English, and of whom he told only the women and children could get on the lifeboats. When she got on the lifeboat, the steward who told her to get on handed her a baby whom Jessop described as being "forgotten." I actually think it was probably the child of a woman in the crowd who didn't want to leave her husband but also wanted her baby to survive. Once the lifeboat had been lowered to the sea, Jessop realized that only five more decks remained above the surface. The baby and most of the women were crying and she watched as another crew member, a man who had been below the decks feeding coal to supply power and somehow made it onto the lifeboat, was rowing it away from the sinking Titanic. Her account was seemed extremely surreal, as she described it as a dream even after she was in a lifeboat rowing away from the Titanic, she still couldn't believe that it was sinking.

     Jessop's memoir is unique because she gave insight to what it was like to have been a female crew member on the Titanic, and although she wrote down her memories over two decades after the event, it seemed like she could remember every single detail of the night the Titanic sank. I think this is possible because when something traumatic happens to people, they often can remember minute details years later whether they want to or not. John Maxtone Graham insinuated in several places that she had probably fabricated some details of her account and that it was probably due to her not writing down her account soon after it had happened. Although this is possible, I don't think he should have repeatedly stated counterevidence against Jessop, it created a sort of argument between Jessop's memoir and Graham. I found his insertion of his own ideas extremely distracting and at times disrespectful to the memories of Violet Jessop. Graham's comments were often unnecessary as well for example about the night the Titanic sank Jessop wrote "Colder and yet a little colder, gray sky deepening into haziness as evening fell, making the water look like molten silver as it caught the soft beams of a misty moon" (124).  Directly after this sentence, Graham inserted his own opinion stating "Jessop's recreation of that Sunday evening is flawed' there was no moon, only brilliant starlight" (124). It really doesn't matter whether Jessop saw a "misty moon" and other passengers only saw stars, that information is irrelevant to the big picture. Graham gave himself a negative voice and influence over the reader while trying to correct Jessop's memoirs. Perhaps what I find most interesting about primary documents is that they can be conflicting sometimes, which doesn't make them "flawed" it makes them unique. Jessop recorded her memories as best as she could, paying attention to detail, and she captured the most important aspects correctly.