Sometimes the two unhinged hosts bring you stories you’ve never heard. Other times, we tell you stories you’ve likely heard. Today, we’re probably doing both.
Angie kicks things off with her retelling of a very chaotic year in Rome. It’s the year the empire had five emperors and held an auction… for the emperorship? Throne? It was a whole thing.
Meanwhile, Theresa is still on her survivor kick. Last week she shared the story of the man who survived both atomic bombs in Japan, and today she shares the tale of Violet Jessop, who survived the sinking of the Titanic and two other shipwrecks before it.
This story pairs well with:
Tsutomu Yamaguchi – the twice-bombed man
Pope Pius II (He wrote a dirty book)
Transcript
Theresa: Hi and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast where two compulsive nut jobs are going to annoy certain listeners that we are attempting to repel and attract the others as we mainline history stories and then join forces and tell each other the stories we’ve only recently learned. I’m host one, I’m the annoying one. I’m Teresa. And that over there is host two. Hi.
Angie: And she I don’t know how to handle that. Um she’s not annoying, but whatever.
Theresa: I mean, look, I am not everyone’s cup of tea. I am not even going to I’m not I don’t have to lie to kick it.
Angie: No, you don’t. Don’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Be your own cup of tea for you.
Theresa: I’m gonna be your shot of whiskey is what I’m gonna be. That’s right. You know that’s right. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, we did become friends because I went nuclear and was like, well, she’s either gonna block me or she’s going to be my best friend.
Angie: And it worked. So and you sourced the me. I am still this is all over a meme, you guys. I don’t want I don’t want to share it publicly, but No, we don’t want to share the he found the meme after a decade. Like she found it again recently, and I was like, are you kidding me?
Theresa: I mean, this meme was one of the worst memes. It’s like where you read it, you laugh, you realize you’re going to hell because you’re laughing, and then the meme keeps getting worse, and you laugh harder. And worse.
Angie: You keep laughing. And you realize you’re the one carrying the basket though. Yeah.
Theresa: No, I drive the bus routes Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hey, good for you. Yeah. That’s I’m employed.
Angie: Swap off with Got a key card. Wow.
Theresa: Look at you.
Angie: Oh my god, that’s me. I go first today, guys. Um Wow. There’s really no way to uh share to share my sources without just totally do we take off my headphones? Yeah, take off your headphones.
Theresa: You’re gonna take off your headphones for mine anyhow, so it’s fine. Perfect. This works.
Angie: Hi, friends. So uh this week’s episode is going to be the time the Praetorian Guards sold the Roman Empire, and my sources are The Day the Praetorian Sold the Roman Empire, the Collector, August 4, 2026. It’s an article written by Karen Jones. Another collector collector article called Roman Consul’s Political Power in Ancient Rome from March 11th of 2025, written by Jessica Seuss. The next one is the Foundation of Economic Education. It is an article called Didius Julianus, the Roman Emperor who bought the Imperial Throne and Paid with His Life. And then a very short medium article titled The Entire Roman Empire was once auctioned off to the highest bidder by Jason Ward.
This is from September of 2021. I’m She’s putting her headphones back on. So what did I miss? All right.
I’m gonna talk about Rome today. All right. You ready?
I am okay. And I for all of you stickers for pronunciation of names. There are three names coming up.
I’m not sure if I’m gonna pronounce them right, but I’m only gonna say ’em once. So here we go. Okay. Hoping for the best. I’m going to tell you about a day in the year 193 AD in Rome. Okay.
Theresa: I can’t recall a single event from 193.
Angie: Perfect. Rome is reeling from chaos. Emperor come out. Oh my god. Come on, Commodus? he is the self-declared god and part-time gladiator has fully spiraled into his own.
Theresa: Wait, he’s a permanent gladiator?
Angie: Yeah. Like he legit trained as a gladiator.
Theresa: Okay, but he’s not like moonlighting on weekends, putting the stability ability of the Emperor or of the Empire at state.
Angie: I get the sense that he is. But Okay.
Theresa: So, but like Wow. Okay.
Angie: Don’t quote me. That’s that’s my take. Um, I know for a fact that he was definitely training with the gladiators. I think he was also having his time in the ring. But
this isn’t about that, so I didn’t like 100% follow that bunny trail. Um he has like fully spiraled into this like meglamaniac. He things are crazy. He’s nuts. He does stuff like renaming both Rome and all twelve months of the calendar after himself.
Theresa: You know that’s a solid move. Right.
Angie: And then he starts purging the aristocracy to eliminate anybody that might challenge his rule. And he’s Stalin did that. It doesn’t go great for him either. No, it doesn’t. So he’s planned or is planning this New Year’s Eve massacre of the nobles to make him the sole consul, which is like further eliminating anyone that might be able to check in. Because what I learned while doing this is that Rome at this time has almost like a dual kingship, but you have your emperor and then you have your your consuls and before the like imperium of Rome, you would have two consuls and they’d be able to check and balance each other, right? Like that’s what they’re supposed to be able to do. I’m not supposed to let you get so powerful and you’re not supposed to let me get so powerful, like we’re supposed to work together. Right.
Um in his case, he’s like, Yeah, no, I’m just gonna handle that and I’m gonna be I’m gonna be the only power. Like that’s what he’s thinking. And um, so he’s he’s plotting. And three of his own inner circle, they somehow find out about this, and they know they’re on the chopping block. So they start plotting themselves. Okay.
Things aren’t things are not looking good for them, and um they are a celtis, who is the chamberlain, I’m hoping I pronounced his name right. Ladis, who is the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, and m I wanna say the name is Marcia, but the internet tells me it’s Marcia. I think it’s Marcia. She’s his mistress. She like Commodus’s mistress.
Theresa: And Marcia sounds like from the seventies, but Marcia sounds like it’s going to be more in line with this time. It’s the Tiffany.
Angie: That’s what I thought, and I was like, what? So I listened to a couple different videos just to like check the pronunciation of her name, and I got a couple different ways of saying it, and then last night I was like, How many different ways can you spell the name Marcia? And this is what I got. But anyway, she’s his mistress, and all three of them are like we know for a fact that we are up next. This guy sees us as a problem in his wheelhouse. And so they attempt to poison him by inserting something into his beef dish, which apparently you can still make today. There’s like the Roman cookbook out there, like you can still make this beef dish, and apparently it’s very good. I watched a whole video on it. They failed the poison in them.
Theresa: Oh, sorry, I was gonna interrupt to say I love those cookbooks where it’s like this dish was you know, this is the literal need from da da, and you’re like, ooh. Yeah. I kinda yeah.
Angie: And I’m wal I watched like the chef make it and I was like, holy cow, that’s so freaking cool. Now obviously he doesn’t include the poison in his dish. But but Coward. I
know. This doesn’t work on the Emperor either because he just pukes it all out, so they have to go to plan B, which is basically hiring a wrestler called Narcissus who also happens to be the guy that the Emperor trains with.
Theresa: With they hire someone literally named Narcissus. Okay. That’s what I said.
Angie: I’m I’m assuming this is where the name comes from. So I was like, damn, okay.
Theresa: That was the name of a god or a dude who like was watching his reflection, fell so in love with it that he falls forward and drowns.
Angie: Okay, we are talking about a Jim Bro here. Totally. No no lies detected. So they get him involved, and from what I understand, the Emperor is then strangled to death in his bathtub. Now that is supposed to be the end of it. Like that is supposed to be the end of this instability, but it actually just serves to kick off the year of five emperors. It’s probably obvious, but this takes the stability that the reign of Marcus Aurelius has created and just absolutely nosedives it, like hard. Commodos for his part was the son of Aurelius, which I did not know. I
was like, Oh dang, that’s wild. Um, and that makes him special already, but unlike his dad, um, he is a bit preoccupied with himself and his years and an emperor, so like what Marcus Aurelius did to keep Rome s like stable and thriving, his son just sort of forgets that he’s the boss in that area. So he just kind of goes on spending sprees and he lives for himself and he doesn’t really worry about things you should worry about as the emperor. He
neprobabies out. pretty much and here’s the thing up to this point very few if any Roman emperors were actually the biological son of the predecessor. They were often um heirs that became heirs as adults that were adopted by the former emperor right so like you’ve proven you can rule I’m I’ve been making you my heir. Marcus
Aurelius sort of pops that bubble by making his own biological son his heir. And when he dies when Commodus dies and like everything is just distraught and opens this power vacuum super quick right But it would seem that this would have been considered beforehand because the very next day his partner in the consulship has been elevated to emperor. So like less than twelve hours later there’s a new emperor in town and he’s this old senator called Pertinax and there are sources that say that he wasn’t complacent in the murder but the speed and the way things unfold it’s really easy to suggest he was definitely involved in some way or at least knew what was going on. Like
knew he was up right what is that like the batting circle like your next that’s yeah um now Pertinax he wants to emulate Marcus Aurelius’s reign but unlike Aurelius he blocks his own son from being recognized as Caesar ever and he by default can’t be his heir. So this kind of looks like okay we’re making some corrections to some things that failed for our empire before um and he tries to restore order within the city and this brings him into direct contact and conflict with the Praetorian guard. And here’s why they the Imperial Guard of Rome are quite used to receiving a monetary gift. It’s called a donative if you will upon the ascension of the next emperor
Theresa: so I they want another kick back right quick.
Angie: Yeah I’ve become emperor I would like your gift and they’re quite used to it and um Pertinix he offers them a gift but it’s considered miserly by their standards and um supposedly this is because the Imperial treasury is in a bit of a state like things aren’t things aren’t great and so Pertinax doesn’t have a ton to like offer so he offers what he can there’s this um ancient source called the Historia Augusta which is not always reliable but is fun nonetheless that says that Pertinax even held an auction that included the belongings of um Commodus just to raise funds for the Treasury. Like the Treasury is in such a rate that we need we need to do something. It’s reported that he sold off things like concubines, robes of silk, a gladiator’s toga and cups in the shape of a phallus
Theresa: you know this is wild that he’s basically hosting a yard sale
Angie: pretty much yeah um now you’d think that would help but it doesn’t the Praetorian guard just sees Pertinax as a stingy old dude and not only do they see him as miserly he is also very quickly trying to clear out corruption and this doesn’t fit well with the men who have basically been raised to be corrupt at this point. So they’re looking at him like this isn’t going great for us and he’s looking at them like y’all have been taking like been abusing the system for a long time Yeah. this
is not cool. And and the other thing to point out like I think this is really interesting the Praetorian guard are the Imperial guards of Rome so they don’t actually leave Rome. Like they don’t leave the city of Rome so their um duties while you you know you’re obviously a soldier you’re obviously a guard they don’t see warfare like you have your legions out so they kind of have the cushioned of the job if that makes sense. That makes sense. Right?
And um there they at this point are the king makers like if you want to stay in power in Rome you want to keep your head then you keep them happy that said they are not happy and after only eighty seven days in office the Praetorian guard march on the Imperial Palace and slaughter Pertnix. Oh yeah so he doesn’t even make it a quarter no exactly 87 days and this leads to the next problem who’s gonna run the place enter two rich dudes in the left corner you have Didius Julianius who has spent his life pretty close to the centers of power the author of Historia Augustus Augusta says that he was raised in the home of Dominita Lucia, who just happens to be the mother of Marcus Aurelius. So
like family bonds are real tight here, right? And this helps him get great positions within the empire. And he is for whatever reason isn’t even on the hit list of Commodus. Like he he makes it out clean. So things are looking really good for him, and also he’s super rich. On the other side, you have a man called Titus Flavius Claudius Sepulcanius. And he has served as the pro-council of Asia, and he too has some great family connections. He is married to the daughter of a man called Titus Flavius Titianus, who is the prefect of Egypt under the rule of Hadrian. So like a who’s who of names of ancient Roman names, right? Their daughter was married to none other than Pertinix. So he’s the father in law of the Emperor that was just murdered. Wow.
Theresa: I would not have thought of this rolling up to somebody older. Right?
Angie: Yeah. I was like, okay. Um And this relationship while Pertinix was alive, gives him this promotion to the role of the urban prefect of Rome, which is like the equivalent of a modern day like mayor, police chief, and judge all rolled into one. Basically, he runs the day-to-day life of the city of Rome while the Empire while the Emperor runs the Empire. Like this makes sense.
Theresa: Mayor of Washington, DC versus the president.
Angie: Yeah, exactly that. Um and you can imagine that this role leads him to believe he is the perfect person to rule all of Rome. I can rule a city.
Theresa: Ergo, I can do the empire.
Angie: Like it’s fine. I got this. And now both of these fellows know exactly one thing for sure, and that’s that the Praetorian Guard can be bought. And so in late March of 193, both men find themselves with the capabilities and the position to appeal to the Praetorians for the most powerful seat in the Empire. And the Victorians now it’s a bidding war. The Praetorians have barricaded themselves inside their castro, which is their fort, and both of the fellows show up to inform the guard of their intention. And what happens next can only be described as an auction of Rome. So yes, the bidding war begins.
Theresa: Wow. I did not realize I was lining up the documents. connecting so thoroughly.
Angie: So Cassius Dio, who is a contemporary of the time and like in Rome, writes, quote, when Julianus heard of the death of Pertinix, he hastily made his way to the imperial throne, then ensued a most disgraceful business and one unworthy of Rome, for just as if it had been in some market or auction room, both the city and its entire empire were auctioned off. The sellers were the ones who had slain their previous emperor, and the would-be buyers were Suppulcanius and Didius Julianis, who vied to outbid each other. They gradually raised their bids up to twenty sinestries for each sold. Some of the soldiers would carry word to Julianus, Suppulcanius offers so much, how much do you make it? And Suppulcanius and in turn, like they would just go, they’re going back and forth. Julianus promises so much. How
much do you promise? Suppulcanius would have won the day, being prefect of the city and all that, and like the first to name this 20,000 figure. But our guy Julianus, like immediately, instead of going up inclement incrementally, he’s like, BAM, five thousand, go, twenty-five thousand ahead. So he shoots the sum up, like a costly amount. Yeah.
In one fail go, and he yells it so it can be heard. Like one of my sources that I don’t name because it’s a uh collective has says it the numbers bounce off the walls, like it echoes. I don’t know how true that is, but I’m like, okay, that’s a really fun visual.
Theresa: Like, I say I do want a modern redoing of this where it’s I got five. Five, do I have five? I got six, seven, seven, yeah, seven, eight, go in once, go. Ah, seventy-five.
Angie: That is exactly how I saw it. So this definitely looks like an auction by our standards, but in reality, it’s just an escalation of offerings made by both men with the soldiers going back and forth, right? Because
for them it’s a donation, like you’re giving us a gift. Whose gift is gonna be higher? And Subulcanius, he’s inside the camp. He is able to make eye contact with the guards and like lay a hand on the shoulder and be like, Hey, I got this. He’s glad I’m handing them. so
you think like things are going pretty well for him. Um and the book I can’t name says, quote the because Julianis, he’s walked outside, I forgot to say that, right?
Theresa: Why can’t you name the book?
Angie: Because it’s gonna have it’s a source for several several other of my upcoming stories.
Theresa: And so when I edit this episode, I’m gonna have to not hear it. Pretty much. Okay, I can ignore it. So I can’t name the name. I can’t. But you you named it at least when you said it out loud at the beginning when I had my headphones off, right? No.
Angie: Because I refuse to give you the name at all. Sorry. All right, carry on. Thank you. So you’ve got one on the inside of camp, one on the outside, he’s locked out by the way. Like, he’s just waiting for his chance to like get through the door, and he’s the one yelling over the thing. They say, quote, the Praetorian Guard turned the Roman Empire into a distressed asset cell, and all I could think of is like when your granny throws the yard sale sign up real quick because she’s just so sick of everybody’s crap being in her garage. Like
that was totally what I saw, and I was like, okay. Now, Julianis, he wins because right, he is thrown all caution to the wind, and he raises it to twenty-five thousand, and things are going great for him. Now I was curious, there isn’t a way to directly translate their money to today’s money. Um, but at the time, twenty-five thousand Sinestries, if I’m pronouncing that right, had the equivalent buying power of ten horses. So
Okay. decent amount. And this is per per Praetorian Guard. So I was like, dang, okay, this man’s got some money because all right, sure. Um he is welcomed in to the fort and he is declared emperor. The Senate has no choice but to agree to this because the Praetorian Guard said so. So what are you gonna do? You
know, you gonna tell him no. They they have the pointy sticks. Exactly. Now, whatever fun Julianus thought he was gonna have, those first few minutes is very short-lived because he is super hated by the regular folk of Rome who are just hurling abuses at him for buying the throne from the very people who slayed the last guy. They’re like, Yeah, absolutely not. This isn’t this is how we go about things. Like we’ve we vote. We
don’t what are you doing? You know, like they don’t have anything nice to say. And additionally, it doesn’t take long for the guard to realize he can’t really pay them what he said. Oh at least one source says that Julianus devalued the currency by reducing precious metal content of Roman coinage, but not even that measure made the price he offered affordable to him. So he never fully coughed up what he was promised.
Theresa: So he did he defaults real quick.
Angie: Real quick. One source said that he may have actually paid them more than what he said, but all the other sources are like, no, he never he never paid him. Like so it’s only gonna take a matter of weeks for all of this news to travel to the prefects and the generals outside of Rome, right? Like news travels slower today, but it still travels fast, if that makes sense. And so you have these Roman generals from like the great and other reaches of the Roman Empire finding out about this and being like, What? The
hell. So they organize and some of them declare themselves emperor, and they march for Rome themselves. And there is one particular fellow called Septimus Severus, and he gets to Rome first. Now, my sources say that Julianus knew he was coming, and so he would send like emissaries to try to block him off or to try to negotiate with him outside of the city, and none of this worked. And so he’s sort of makes it to Rome, and he’s camping out and he’s watching what’s happening, and Julianus is less than excited about all of this, and on June 1st of 193, just sixty-six days after he got his new job, he’s fired. Whoa.
Theresa: Okay, now I’m assuming fired doesn’t mean you get a severance package and you go in unemployment.
Angie: No, sev uh fired means the de that the Senate declares the death sentence for him.
Theresa: That’s uh it’s one way to make sure you don’t come back to the company.
Angie: Truly, your severance package package is severance. Yeah, front somebody. In fact, and so whether he knows the Senate has declared this or not, he’s still in the Imperial Palace the next day, where a soldier finds him and just kills him on the spot. So he’s he is out of the picture, he’s gone. Severus
enters Rome, invites the entire Praetorian Guard to an unarmed meeting, which honestly feels like you should have been prepared for what happens next. Yeah. Right. And he then surrounds them with his legions. So you’ve got the Victorian guard, and then you have like these legions of very angry, very battle hardened soldiers who are super loyal to Severus because hey, we’ve been in the mud in the muck together for all this time, right? And he tells them, you can either leave and never come within a hundred miles of Rome again, which I imagine had to be hard because Rome at this time is huge, or die. They
leave. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. in one fail swoop, he completely disbands the guard and rebuilds it from the ground up with his own soldiers. Which
is wild. This one year alone would see no less than five emperors. And that’s the story of how Rome went to the auction block once. Wow. That’s it. And I I was like, I’m sorry, what?
Theresa: Wow. Well, I’m gonna take you on a incredibly different time period. Shocked. Uh one you probably know well, but I’m going to hold my cards to my chest as long as I can. So
with that, headphones off, please. So uh my sources, the Molly Brown Museum, Servants at Sea, Violet Jessup, Titanic Survivor, the Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessup who survived both the Titanic and Britannic disasters by Violent Jessup. UK’s history dot com, their version of it. Uh
Unsinkable Violet Jessup, the survivor of the Titanic, and two other ship disasters by B.P. Perry. I’m back. Great. Welcome back. Uh we’re headed to October 2nd, 1887. Violent Violet Jessup, not Violent, is born in Bahia by Bianca Blanca in Argentina. She’s the daughter of Irish immigrants.
Angie: She’s on my list. Carry on.
Theresa: Oh, so you know exactly who she is. It didn’t matter if I had the headphones on or off. Um And I will say this is a hat tip. So the person who uh suggested last week’s episode of um the man who survived two atomic bombings. Uh he also suggests, or they, I have no idea, gender, because it’s J-D-H 117, so it’s gender neutral as far as I’m concerned.
Angie: Um, the two dashes mean mean definitely male.
Theresa: That’s yeah, uh one dash is for the X and the second dash is for the Y, even though they’re the same.
Angie: Um anyhow, they suggested both of them.
Theresa: So she’s born to William and Catherine Jessup and moves to England at age 16. This this happens on the heels of her father passing away. So the family moves back to the homeland. At the time she enrolled in a convent school, doesn’t get to stay there too terribly long because at age 20, Violet’s mom becomes ill, and so she needs to leave school so that she can start putting out work for the family. This makes sense. She ends up securing a job as a stewardess aboard the RMS Renoco, and this is traveling between England and the Caribbean, which that seems pretty stinking cool.
Angie: I mean, I’m I’m here for it.
Theresa: Now, um there are some concerns because it is 1908 and she is on the Royal Mail line ship that is sailing to the West Indies. There is concern that she’s not gonna make it. One shipping executive speculates that she’s not gonna last more than a trip.
Angie: The boat or violet. Violet.
Theresa: They don’t think Violet has what it is, you know, has it in her. Um sources talk about how that she might be seen as too pretty. Okay. Um And so I’m assuming with that, you know, kicking off the wives of the people because their husbands are are glancing over.
Angie: Um she’s gonna find a rich husband real quick. One of the two.
Theresa: I mean, that’s kind of what he seems yeah, right. Um and it it may also do with attitude. I I’m not quite sure. But either way, they don’t think she’s gonna she’s a long ship. She’s not here for long haul. She’s not a lifer. Right.
Now she has some good quotes that I have throughout this. Quote The nights did not compensate for a day’s fatigue as I could not get used to the narrow short bunk in my tiny cabin perched above the ship’s propellers.
Angie: So that sounds like an awful sleeping arrangement.
Theresa: Yeah. Long story short, she’s homesick. She wants affection, sympathy. She’s only 20.
Angie: Right. I would like to just be a barista, thank you. Yeah. Go home at the end of the day. Do a six hour shift. Yeah.
Theresa: Come home smelling like spoiled milk and and ground coffee and then go dancing, right? Yeah. But she did note that the youngest of those employed, they had the heaviest labor. It’s monotonous, it’s soul grinding. And they’re the it seems as if they’re trying to ground down the souls of the youngest first. Hate that. And that apparently the older crew members loved to criticize the younger staff. Shocking. So that’s changes. toxic. Yeah. But she perseveres because quote, you were faced with the paradox of being considerably overworked, yet much happier and freer because of their attitude. So she’s got a great disposition. Yeah. All
right. Later, she says life on board was a sequence of jars, which at time hurt deeply, yet it was teeming with interest, and because I was built that way, limitless hope. Every new place and different character was fresh ground to explore, so the racking weariness of limb and feet was often forgotten. There was little time for self-pity, and I wanted to absorb everything.
Angie: I love that. Good for her.
Theresa: So she has got the best mindset for this. Yeah. Now, there’s some sources that vary. Some sources say September 1910 or early 1911. Violet takes a job with the White Store Line White Star Line. And she joins them. She’s assigned a job on the company’s brand new flagship Ocean Liner, the RMS Olympic. Angie
did a fun little shimmy right there that nobody could see. The Olympic is the first of three Olympic class transatlantic ocean liners built in Belfast to be the new gold standard of luxury transatlantic travel. Her sister ships would be the Titanic and the Britannic. Now, despite not having glass door reviews on the company workplace, Jessup would say I had not heard nothing but good of this company sailing between England and America, but I also knew the work there to be very arduous and the hours very long. The type of passenger who patronized it, expected all the service the company could give it, and got it.
Angie: Indeed, because you’re a luxury. Yeah. And the pastors ride on these ships. So yeah, okay. This makes sense.
Theresa: But to hear that, hey, company’s great to work for. You’re gonna work your ass off. Yeah.
Angie: But the Christmas dinner party to die for. And the benefits. Yeah. They pay for dental. Oh my. Wow.
Theresa: I mean, I don’t know if they truly paid for dental. I mean, I’m I was spitballing there and I realized that that might be.
Angie: I know I’m gonna I’m gonna have to look. Thanks.
Theresa: You’re welcome. Um but she ends up having a great time because she’s enjoying the crew and the passengers, regardless of the ages. Like she everybody’s cup of tea. She’s not like me. Um she even loves the American passengers. She describes it, this is interesting to me. And I kind of I’ve never been to England outside of you know the Heathrow Airport, but she describes the Americans as ones who view the crews as individuals. Okay. Like they often use the crew members’ names, they’re kind. They
recognize that the crew actually is going out of their way to make their voyage better. Okay. Cool. And this they she doesn’t say that it this is in contrast to the British, but it feels like it’s in contrast. Okay.
Now as she’s doing all of this, she’s noting that the work isn’t easy. That men, I don’t know about women, so this could be joint, but they’re working 16 hours a day every day of the week. They’re scrubbing and cleaning from the moment they rise to the moment they drop. They’re moving mountains of baggage, they’re carved and served food. So they cleaned a ton of useless metal work until their very souls seem permeated with metal polish. And then they would go on to keep long wash jits at night. So
spick and span, ship shape, whatever term we want to use here. It’s all being done. Sparkling. Yeah. Now she is on the Olympic when the liner collides with the Royal Naval Destroyer, the HMS Hawk. And this is right after leaving Southampton. Okay.
The Olympic is badly damaged and it returns to Belfast for some very extensive repairs. This incident cost the White Star a fortune. And it’s because there’s an inquiry that’s done, and it blames the White Star Line for the collision itself. And this is not only a huge repair bill, but they’re also facing a large legal bill to accompany it.
Angie: Oh, right. I did Yeah, that makes sense. Okay.
Theresa: So 1912, Violet is offered a position on the newly completed RMS Titanic.
Angie: Knowing the story of the Olympic being uh such a expensive endeavor for them makes the Titanic theory of it being an insurance fraud very real.
Theresa: Now she’s just gone through the collision with the HMS Hawk, and she’s like, you know, I I enjoyed being on the Olympic. I did. Um I don’t I don’t know about this opportunity, but she has a friend who persuades her to take it. So she takes the job at the Titanic. Okay. Thanks, friend. Yeah. I mean, for those of us with hindsight, woof.
Angie: Way to go, girlfriend.
Theresa: Now at this point, she’s had a decent career at sea. Um, and so she gets aboard the Titanic and she’s eager to join the crew of this new ship. It’s
pretty, it’s everything you’d want it to be. And she tends to have a ton of respect for Thomas Andrews, who’s the ship’s builder. And here’s why she respects him. He went through to the crew of the Olympic and said, What changes would you want in place for the Titanic?
Angie: Oh, okay, that’s cool.
Theresa: And so she’s talking about her bunk placement. Because she’s like, I like sleep. It was awful. And so they end up changing the way the bunks are so that she gets a little bit of privacy. Love that for her. I
mean, yeah, you she advocated for herself, gets what she wanted. This shipbuilder seemed to really pay attention to those details. Now, I can only imagine being in the break room, and the crew is passing around the list of you know, the people on board, and they’re all ooing and awing over this guest list. Right.
Angie: Okay, that makes sense, yeah.
Theresa: And they’re as they’re doing it, they’re like, ooh, but I don’t know if I want to meet ’em. Um, here’s a quote from her. The romance one cannot help weaving around certain personalities, due mostly to the press is often shattered on contact. Don’t meet
your heroes. Exactly. And I that is so incredible. Because she’s like, you know what? I would love to meet them, but they could be absolute douchebags. And I don’t know if I want to be involved in that.
Angie: Yeah, I don’t know if I want my heart broken. Right.
Theresa: Like, I like my mindset of them in TMZ. I just want to keep how I know them on Bravo or whatever.
Angie: Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah.
Theresa: So April 14th, 1912. She’s on the Titanic. She terms this day delightful. The Titanic sets sail from Southampton on its maiden voyage. And then at 11:40 PM on the light the night of the 14th, Violet is preparing to go to bed. She hears this terrible sound, this loud bang, followed by this low screeching noise. So she gets dressed as quick as she can, and she goes to investigate the noise and is horrified to figure out that this ship hit the iceberg. Now she’s told to go down and don a life vest and then head up to the ship’s top deck. And then
she’d later put in her memoirs that her goal was to serve as an example to the passengers who couldn’t speak English about how to behave in a crisis. Okay. Which, wow. Yeah. All right. Once the passengers are all upstairs, she goes back to her room and starts tidying up until the head steward comes down and ushers her to the boats.
Angie: Okay, so I gotta keep my hands busy.
Theresa: Yeah, and it could just be because that’s who she is as a human, or she’s just been ingrained that from sun up to sundown, I’m awake, I’m working. Do you have time to lean? You have
time to clean. Once she gets on the boat deck, she watches as the lifeboats are lowered. Finally, a crewman orders her onto a boat. She’s put on lifeboat 16. This is
mostly filled with immigrant passengers. Okay. As it’s getting lowered into the water, a baby is pushed into her arms by one of the ship’s officers. Okay. And then the lifeboat hits the water and rows away. And she’s in the water as 1,500 people lose their lives.
Angie: That’s crazy. Holding a baby she doesn’t even know the name of. Yeah. And it’s just handed to her by a co-worker.
Theresa: She never sees the where this baby originated from. Right. So she’s in the water three hours when rescue comes at the rivaldy RMS Carpathia. And she gets on deck, she’s holding the baby, and a woman just runs up to her, snatches the baby, and runs off.
Angie: So that must have been her baby.
Theresa: Presumably. But there’s no record of what happened to the baby that Violet carried the safety. We have the baby just appears on the historical record and disappears. Okay. Which crazy thing, and you would be upset if the movie didn’t cover who that was, you know. Yes. Now that’s
when Violet starts looking around and she’s trying to figure out who survived. Right. Okay. Now she’s aboard. So here’s
a quote from her. We looked without success for so many whom we had ties of friendship. Our dear friend Tommy Andrews for the good doctor for the boys that had made life aboard easier for us for good friends in all departments. But they were among the missing when the role was called. Oof. Okay. And this is when the Carpathia sails to New York and would deposit the survivors. And then shortly after, Violet returns to Southampton.
Angie: Like via another boat.
Theresa: Via another boat. Like she’s not like teleporting.
Angie: Obviously. But I just I I would be like, you know what? I’ll stay in New York. It’s fine here. Thank you. Yeah. June of that year. She’s back out to sea. Wow. Okay.
Theresa: Now, when World War One breaks out, that’s two years later, she enrolled with the British Red Cross. She’s still working as a sewardess, and this time she’s assigned to the HMHS Britannic. This is
the youngest of the Olympic class liners. Okay. Now the Britannic had been requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915 to act as a hospital ship, and this would be carrying wounded troops from Gallipoli, uh from the Gallipoli campaign from Greece to England. Okay. Now,
she’s on the Britannic. It is November 16th of 1916. This is their fourth trip. Bringing wounded soldiers home? Yeah. They struck a mine. Oof. And the
blast would cause the ship to flood and then list to one side as it starts to sink. Right. Okay. So Violet and all of her crew members, they gather on deck and they’re awaiting the order to abandon ship. Okay. They’re
waiting. The order’s not given, and the lifeboats are slowly lowered into the water, one of which Violet gets on. Okay. Now,
the boats were pulled towards one of the giant spinning propellers of the Britannic because as it had started to list to one side and sink, the propeller had lifted out of the sea, causing the ship to further list over to the same side. So these lifeboats are being pulled towards this giant spinning fan that’s going to hack them to smithereens. Right.
Angie: Yeah, no, I’m good. I’m good.
Theresa: Now, people are watching, both in lifeboats and not, as some of the lifeboats are smashed to pieces. The blood is splattering up the hall of the Britannic. The hall is white. Or was Good lord.
Angie: That would give me nightmares for the rest of my life.
Theresa: Violet jumps from the lifeboat and she ends up smashing her head on something as she’s plunging into the sea. But she ends up getting pulled from the water after the Britannic’s captain ordered the ship’s engine to stop because they were still going. That’s why
the propeller was still spinning. Right. That makes sense. And this is the second time in four years that she had watched one of the White Star Line’s mighty ocean liners sink.
Angie: That’d be. Yeah, okay.
Theresa: Now, after the war, she goes back to work for White Star. Okay. I I don’t know if I could.
Angie: Yeah, I think I’m good. I’m good. I’m gonna retire now.
Theresa: Uh but ends up that the rest of her career is uneventful because she would end up working for the Red Star line, the Royal Mail line, and then retire to a little cottage in Suffolk. Okay. She would be dubbed the unsinkable Molly Jessup and would die of congenital heart failure in 1971 at 83 years old.
Angie: Wait, the unsinkable Molly Jessup, like the unsinkable Molly Brown.
Theresa: No, the unsinkable Violet Jessup. Very similar to the Unthinkable Molly Brown.
Angie: Okay, I was like, wait a minute. No, no, no.
Theresa: Yeah. We didn’t change her name to Molly, but Molly’s name wasn’t Molly. Right. Okay. Anyway.
Angie: She died in 1976. 71. 71? Okay. Wow. It’s wild to me the amount of history that happened just before we were born that left an entire generation capable of still telling their stories while we were on this planet, but we were too young to do anything about it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s crazy. I didn’t realize she lived that long.
Theresa: I mean, like I had learned it and then promptly forgot and then got to relearn. Yeah. I Wow. I love it. Yeah. It was it was incredible. And if you are looking for survivor stories, go to last week’s episode, listen to the guy who survived two atomic bombs. He is the only recognized human to do so, even though there were roughly 170 other humans who were in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima on the bad day.
Angie: And on that note. that note. On the bad day. Bye.
Unhinged History 
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