What If The Greatest Miracles Are The Disasters You Never Knew You Missed

Some survival stories jolt the senses; others change the way you see an ordinary day. We dive into the remarkable life of Violet Jessup—the stewardess who endured the Olympic collision, escaped the Titanic after helping panicked passengers, and survived the rapid sinking of the hospital ship Britannic during World War I. Her calm resolve, a split-second leap from a lifeboat dragged toward deadly propellers, and an unshakable belief that she was “looked after” invite a larger conversation about courage, providence, and the quiet shape of protection.
If resilience has ever felt like a lonely climb, let this story offer a steadier footing. We walk away encouraged to thank God for both the storms we survived and the storms that never reached us, and to carry that posture into the choices ahead. If this reflection moved you, share it with a friend who needs courage today, subscribe for weekday encouragement, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find these five-minute resets.

Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome And Daily Focus
• 0:34 Meet Violet Jessup
• 1:05 The Olympic Collision
• 1:37 Aboard The Titanic
• 2:25 War, Britannic, And Survival
• 4:19 Hidden Protection And Psalm 91
• 5:28 Closing And Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Violet Jessup is someone you've probably not heard of, but she really lived an amazing life. She was born in 1887 in Argentina to Irish immigrant parents. At a very early age, she contracted tuberculosis, which the doctor predicted would kill her very quickly, and yet she survived. One of the things that you learn very quickly in looking at Violet's life is that she was always a survivor. At the age of twenty three, Violet joined the White Star Line as a stewardess aboard their ships. In 1910, she got a job aboard the RMS Olympic. Everything seemed good for her. She was enjoying the job until the Olympic crashed into the HMS Hawk, a British warship. Both ships were heavily damaged but were still afloat, and both were able to make it back to dock where they were to be repaired. However, now Violet was without a job. One would think that after experiencing the almost sinking of a ship, that one would stay away from boats for a while, but not Violet. Violet continued to work for the White Star Line, and in April of 1912, she was excited to join the crew of the largest, newest, and the most unsinkable ship of all time. She joined the crew of the Titanic. Four days later, the Titanic struck the iceberg. In one of her memoirs, she talks about how the crew members of the Titanic brought the stewardesses up on deck to try and help with the passengers who couldn't speak English. Eventually the stewardesses were loaded into the lifeboats as an example to the other women that it was safe and that's what they should do. Violet's lifeboat was lowered to the sea. Over the next few hours they watched the Titanic slowly tip and sink nose first down into the depths of the Atlantic. It was a cold and shivering night, but the next morning she was rescued by the RMS Carpathia. Even after surviving the collision of the two ships and the sinking of the Titanic, Violet had not yet given up on being a stewardess for the White Star Line. In nineteen sixteen, during World War I, the White Star Line converted some of their ships into hospitals, and one of these ships was the HMHS Britannic. And again Violet was on board as a stewardess for the British Red Cross. On the morning of november twenty first, the Britannic sank in the AG and C due to some mysterious explosion. To this day, scientists have yet to figure out exactly what caused the blast, though the British believed that it was either struck by a torpedo or hit by a mine planted by the German forces. In her memoirs she again described the sinking of the ship. The bow dipped her head into the sea, and the stern began to rise up into the sky. All of the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys, and then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing up hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar she disappeared into the depths. The Britannic sank in fifty-seven minutes, killing thirty people and nearly taking Violet's life as well. As the ship sank, the propellers were still spinning and began sucking lifeboats under them. Violet jumped out of her lifeboat to safety but received a nasty injury on her head in the process. And it was only years later that she discovered that bang on her head actually fractured her skull. In an interview later in her life, she was asked, Did you ever feel like you were cursed? Heavens no, she replied. I always felt like I was protected for some reason. I was looked after. I certainly was not cursed. Violet took a few years off, but was soon back at it, and spent the next thirty-four years working on large ships. We are always amazed when we hear the stories of people surviving these physical disasters. And in this case, where there were multiple disasters, and still Violet survived them all. They are impressive stories. But have you ever stopped to consider that sometimes God protects us by keeping us safe from entering into something that could or would be a physical disaster? Psalm 91 and verse 3 in the Good News Translation says, He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers. I believe that God is protecting and guiding us every day. I believe that his hand is on us. And if we actually knew how much protection was given us, we would be amazed with how God works. Our God is big enough and powerful enough and loves us enough that he often keeps us safe from the things that we cannot see, the things we're not aware of that are coming against us or could harm us or destroy us. But he protects us from those things. God uses his power to love, guide, and protect his people. So take some time today to thank God for the protection that he has given you. Because with God working in our lives, we are all survivors, and we've survived things that we don't even know could have destroyed us. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.