I first head about Violet Jessop when her words featured in a BBC documentary in 2016 about the sinking of the Britannic. That documentary is now available on History Hit, and shortly after I watched it again I found this book at the local market. Almost unbelievably, Violet served on all three of the sister ships; Olympic, Britannic and the most famous of all, Titanic. This book serves as  a memoir of her time serving as a stewardess, not just for White Star Line, but throughout her career, telling stories of her experiences at sea and recounting those fateful voyages in 1912 and 1916.

The editor of this book makes a very astute observation during his introduction; Violet's writing is quite disjointed and there is a lot of detail missing from her narrative. For example, she was serving on the Olympic when it had a run in with a Navy vessel and had a huge hole torn in her side, which required that she was returned to Belfast for repair... which in turn delayed the launch of her infamous sister ship. However, this incident isn't mentioned at all. Overall, I would liken this to more of a first draft of her planned autobiography; a good outline of the stories she wants to tell and the rough timeline, but something that could have been expanded upon given the chance. It should be noted that the manuscript was completed in the 1930s, but remained unpublished until after her death, meaning there was no chance of first hand revision, and so it must be taken at face value for what it is. It's certainly not the most detailed description of the Titanic disaster by a long way - in fact, I'd say there's more detail about Britannic - but nevertheless it offers a perspective you don't get to see very often; that of a 'normal' crew member who survived.

I can't say I was overly impressed with the editor's input. To me, it felt like there was a lot of 'mansplaining' - he is a marine historian and, while I can recognise that he has obviously studied the Titanic tragedy in detail and did have a little knowledge of Violet personally, more often than not his asides are just condensed overviews of Violet's own words (often quoting passages you've just read), or feel like they're lauding his 'superior knowledge' over her first person account. I'd say about 90% of his annotations are redundant. There's not even much consistency in his editing - early on, we are told that Violet employed pseudonyms for family members, passengers and crew. And yet he amends the manuscript to provide the real names of family members, but retains the pseudonyms for others that can be identified... it just seems an odd choice. There's also a comment that he cut out a lot of her writing about her childhood in Argentina for economy. My argument is that he could have left her story in if he'd laid off the interludes! 

As for Violet herself, she seems like an incredibly put together woman who could roll.with the punches and just got on with what was expected of her. She comes across as humble, downplaying a lot of her positive influences and her bravery in the face of multiple disasters. I feel like I could learn a thing or two from her - it's her complete calmness in the face of demanding passengers and ridiculous suitors that gets me! Stewardess was not her first choice of career, but she knew what was required of her to take care of her family, and she took to it with gusto. My only wish is that there was more of her story in her own words; this feels like just a glimpse, ans I'd love to have had the opportunity to get to know her in more depth. 

I'd say this is more of a book to read if you're interested in early 20th century steamship travel generally, as it does give a very good insight into the workings of a passenger liner from the crew perspective, and the expectations and treatment of female crew. It's definitely an important read for Titanic enthusiasts, but there isn't much in here you won't already know (except for Violet's own story, of course). I'm unsure if there have been more recent versions published with further updates, but my copy is also quite out of date when it comes to a lot of Titanic myth-busting - this version still includes details of the debate surrounding the Californian and why it didn't come steaming to the rescue, which has now been explained using scientific evidence. So if you are looking to read it, definitely pick up the latest version you can. 

If you can watch the Britannic documentary, do. It brings some extracts of her memoirs to life very well in dramatised monologues. This meant I could hear the actress as I was reading, which really lifted the story off the page for me.