In my novel Sheltering Angel, you’ll get to know Titanic second-class steward Violet Jessop. Here is a closer look at this sizzling beauty.

During the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century, hordes of Irish left their country for Canada, the U.S., and especially Argentina where they hoped the pampas would provide more fertile land for their farms. Among the émigrés to Argentina were the future parents of Violet Constance Jessop.

In 1887 when Violet was born, Argentina instilled in her traits of friendliness, fiery self-expression, love of music and parties, and a hot temper. At a young age, she contracted tuberculosis. Although the doctor didn’t expect her to survive, Violet’s determination to live pulled her through.

When Violet was sixteen, her father died from complications during surgery and her mother moved to England with Violet and her six younger siblings. To support the family, Mrs. Jessop took a position as a ship’s stewardess, leaving Violet in charge of the youngsters when her mother was at sea. When home, her mother regaled them all with stories about exotic places she had visited.

Smitten with the idea of travel, at age 21 Violet applied for a stewardess position with White Star Line. Her strong character and inclination to offer care made her a perfect candidate to steward aboard cruise ships. Slender and with the face of an angel, she was hired to work on RMS Majestic sailing between Liverpool and New York City.

Violet quickly learned her duties on Majestic and went about them with youthful exuberance that set her second-class passengers at ease. Women told her their secret yearnings and regrets. Men flattered her or pressed against her when she serviced the small staterooms. When one offered a proposal of marriage, she took to cleaning rooms when passengers were out.

After a few passages on Majestic, Violet turned her attention to RMS Oceanic, a larger ship that promised more substantial earnings. On Oceanic she was fond of mingling with first-class stewards in the upper galley, and the male stewards enjoyed her feisty nature and her good looks.

White Star Line moved its home port from Liverpool to Southampton, and by 1911 its newest ship was ready to launch. RMS Olympic was the world’s largest and most luxurious liner at the time, and Violet stepped forward to be among the stewards applying for a position.

On September 20 in the Solent, the shipping lane between England’s mainland and the Isle of Wight, Olympic collided with the British warship HMS Hawke, badly damaging both ships. Violet was uninjured in the collision and while Olympic was in Belfast for repairs, she returned to Oceanic where she urged fellow stewards Andrew Cunningham and Sidney Siebert (also characters in Sheltering Angel) to sign on for Olympic’s sister ship, RMS Titanic. In April 1912, when she was 24 years old, Violet was granted a transfer to Titanic for its maiden voyage. Cunningham and Siebert joined her.

On April 10, Titanic set out from Southampton with a bunker full of wet coal that combusted even before the ship left the dock. Other ill omens plagued the voyage. Violet noted unpacked boxes of fixtures stacked against the walls of the second-class bathrooms and suspected Titanic had launched before she was fully ready.

Four days later, steaming ahead at full speed, Titanic scraped an iceberg that ripped open six of her sixteen watertight compartments, enough to sink her. Violet had less than three hours to get herself and her female passengers into lifeboats. Men would have to fend for themselves, according to maritime custom. As she was loading people into lifeboat sixteen, someone shoved a bundle of wiggling blankets into her arms. During the long, dark night, Violet’s maternal instincts kicked in, and she cuddled the infant until the rescue ship Carpathia picked up the woeful stragglers, leaving 1,500 dead in the icy water.

By the time Carpathia reached New York, the baby’s mother had found Violet and reclaimed her child. Violet returned to Southampton and took a stewarding job aboard the ship Britannic. During WWI, Britannic was converted to a hospital ship and, ever resourceful, Violet trained as a nurse with the British Red Cross to treat the wounded and ill.

In the Aegean Sea, Britannic struck a mine that tore a hole in her hull. As the ship was sinking, Violet boarded a lifeboat. The small vessel was sucked into Britannic’s propeller and Violet was tossed into the sea. Her head hit one of the ship’s huge blades, knocking her out and nearly killing her. Passengers in another lifeboat pulled her from the water, saving her life. Although thirty people died in the disaster, Violet recovered and returned to work for White Star Line. After so many close calls, could it be Violet had her own sheltering angel?

Although she received several marriage proposals, Violet vowed never to marry, especially to a man much older, even if he had wealth. But in 1923 having just turned 36, she changed her mind and wed fellow steward John Lewis. Perhaps it was her Argentine temperament, but what has been called “a brief and disastrous marriage” lasted only one year.

In 1950 Violet retired to Suffolk at age 63 to write her memoirs. She died of heart failure in 1971 at age 83, and her book Titanic Survivor: The Memoirs of Violet Jessop Stewardess came to light in 1996.

Violet’s memoir was a great resource of information about early Twentieth Century cruise ships, much of which found its way into Sheltering Angel: A Novel Based on a True Story of the Titanic. Both books can be ordered from bookstores or online sellers.