There is no evidence that iron maidens were invented in the Middle Ages or even used for torture, despite being shown so in some media, but instead were pieced together in the 18th century from several artifacts found in museums in order to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.
Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were not hampered by a European belief in a flat Earth. Sailors and navigators of the time knew that the Earth was spherical, but (correctly) disagreed with Columbus's estimate of the distance to India, which was approximately one-sixth of the actual distance.
Marie Antoinette did not actually use the phrase "let them eat cake" when she heard that the French peasantry was starving due to a dearth of bread. The phrase was first published in Rousseau's Confessions when Marie was only 10 years old and most scholars believe that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV.
George Washington did not have wooden teeth. According to a study of Washington's four known dentures by a forensic anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh (in collaboration with the National Museum of Dentistry, itself associated with the Smithsonian Museum), the dentures were made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, and human and animal teeth (including horse and donkey teeth).
The signing of the Declaration of Independence did not occur on July 4, 1776. The final language of the document was approved by the Second Continental Congress on that date, it was printed and distributed on July 4 and 5, but the actual signing occurred on August 2, 1776.
John F. Kennedy's words "Ich bin ein Berliner" are standard German for "I am a Berliner". An urban legend has it that due to his use of the indefinite article ein, Berliner is translated as jam doughnut, and that the population of Berlin was amused by the supposed mistake. The word Berliner is not commonly used in Berlin to refer to the Berliner Pfannkuchen.
Entrapment law in the United States does not require police officers to identify themselves as police in the case of a sting or other undercover work. The law is specifically concerned with enticing people to commit crimes they would not have considered in the normal course of events.
Mussels that do not open when cooked may still be fully cooked and safe to eat.
Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside out. Microwave radiation penetrates food and causes direct heating only a short distance from the surface.
Placing metal inside a microwave oven does not damage the oven's electronics. There are, however, other safety-related issues: electrical arcing may occur on pieces of metal not designed for use in a microwave oven, and metal objects may become hot enough to damage food, skin, or the interior of the microwave oven.
It is commonly claimed that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the Moon. This is false.
The notion that goldfish have a memory of only three seconds is false.
Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. They will, however, occasionally unintentionally fall off cliffs when venturing into unknown territory, with no knowledge of the boundaries of the environment. The misconception is due largely to the Disney film White Wilderness, which shot many of the migration scenes (also staged by using multiple shots of different groups of lemmings) on a large, snow-covered turntable in a studio. Photographers later pushed the lemmings off a cliff.
Bats are not blind. While most bat species do use echolocation to augment their vision, all bat species have eyes and are capable of sight.
According to urban myth, the daddy longlegs spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is the most venomous spider in the world, but the shape of their mandibles leaves them unable to bite humans, rendering them harmless to our species. In reality, they can indeed pierce human skin, though the tiny amount of venom they carry causes only a mild burning sensation for a few seconds.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Bubbly Creek
Bubbly Creek is the nickname given to the South Fork of the Chicago River's South Branch, which runs entirely within the city of Chicago, Illinois. Gases bubbling out of the riverbed from the decomposition of blood and entrails dumped into the river by the local stockyards in the early 20th century give the creek its name. It was brought to notoriety by Upton Sinclair in his exposé on the American meat packing industry entitled The Jungle.
Meatpackers dumped waste, such as blood and entrails, into the nearest river. The creek received so much blood and offal that it began to bubble methane and hydrogen sulfide gas from the products of decomposition:
“ "Bubbly Creek" is an arm of the Chicago River, and forms the southern boundary of the Union Stock Yards; all the drainage of the square mile of packing-houses empties into it, so that it is really a great open sewer a hundred or two feet wide. One long arm of it is blind, and the filth stays there forever and a day. The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of strange transformations, which are the cause of its name; it is constantly in motion, as if huge fish were feeding in it, or great leviathans disporting themselves in its depths. Bubbles of carbonic gas will rise to the surface and burst, and make rings two or three feet wide. Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava; chickens walk about on it, feeding, and many times an unwary stranger has started to stroll across, and vanished temporarily. The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gather this filth in scows, to make lard out of; then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves. The banks of "Bubbly Creek" are plastered thick with hairs, and this also the packers gather and clean. ”
- Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
The creek has remained toxic to the present day; a resident in the 1950s and '60s remembers the air being "rancid". While the area has been increasingly occupied by residential development such as Bridgeport Village, some wildlife and vegetation has returned in recent decades. A program to oxygenate the creek by continuously injecting compressed air into the water has met with limited success: The creek's odor is much reduced, and fish now venture there.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbly_Creek
Meatpackers dumped waste, such as blood and entrails, into the nearest river. The creek received so much blood and offal that it began to bubble methane and hydrogen sulfide gas from the products of decomposition:
“ "Bubbly Creek" is an arm of the Chicago River, and forms the southern boundary of the Union Stock Yards; all the drainage of the square mile of packing-houses empties into it, so that it is really a great open sewer a hundred or two feet wide. One long arm of it is blind, and the filth stays there forever and a day. The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of strange transformations, which are the cause of its name; it is constantly in motion, as if huge fish were feeding in it, or great leviathans disporting themselves in its depths. Bubbles of carbonic gas will rise to the surface and burst, and make rings two or three feet wide. Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava; chickens walk about on it, feeding, and many times an unwary stranger has started to stroll across, and vanished temporarily. The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gather this filth in scows, to make lard out of; then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves. The banks of "Bubbly Creek" are plastered thick with hairs, and this also the packers gather and clean. ”
- Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
The creek has remained toxic to the present day; a resident in the 1950s and '60s remembers the air being "rancid". While the area has been increasingly occupied by residential development such as Bridgeport Village, some wildlife and vegetation has returned in recent decades. A program to oxygenate the creek by continuously injecting compressed air into the water has met with limited success: The creek's odor is much reduced, and fish now venture there.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbly_Creek
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Colton Harris-Moore
Colton A. "Colt" Harris-Moore (born March 22, 1991) (age 19) is a former fugitive from Camano Island, Washington. Harris-Moore is suspected of being responsible for approximately 100 thefts in Washington, Idaho, and Canada, including bicycles, automobiles, light aircraft, and speedboats. It is believed that he learned how to fly small planes by reading aircraft manuals and handbooks and playing flight simulator computer games. One plane he stole was a Cessna 182 belonging to KZOK-FM radio personality Bob Rivers, valued at US$150,000. The plane was later recovered from the Yakama Indian Reservation, though it was so badly damaged that it was a total loss.
According to sheriffs, he would often slip into a home just to soak in a hot bath or steal ice cream from the refrigerator. Initially, he would steal only what he needed for living in the woods as a survivalist. Once, he allegedly used a homeowner's computer and credit card to order bear mace and a pair of US$6,500 night vision goggles.
On July 4, 2010, a Cessna 400 single-engine plane was reported stolen from the Bloomington, Indiana airport – it was later found crashed in the shoreline waters of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, again leading to speculation that Harris-Moore was responsible. Shortly afterward, there were several break-ins reported across the island. The Royal Bahamas Police Force placed wanted posters across the island that featured the teenager. One bartender claimed to have spotted him in a sports bar on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, stating that he drank a beer and left after five minutes. He says that Harris-Moore was wearing a cap over his shaved head and was barefoot.
On July 11, 2010, Harris-Moore was captured just before dawn at Harbour Island, Bahamas. Local officers picked up his trail in Eleuthera after recovering a 44 foot power boat stolen from a marina on Great Abaco. A police official said the suspect attempted to flee, but police shot out the engine on his boat. He told the police that he intended to go to Cuba to throw authorities off his trail and proceed to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Harris-Moore pleaded guilty on July 13, 2010 to illegal entry to the Bahamas and illegally landing a plane. He was sentenced to three months in jail or a $300 fine. Harris-Moore's mother wired the money to the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, which in turn paid the fine. He was deported the same day via overnight commercial flight, accompanied by Bahamian authorities and United States agents of the FBI to Miami, Florida.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton_Harris-Moore
According to sheriffs, he would often slip into a home just to soak in a hot bath or steal ice cream from the refrigerator. Initially, he would steal only what he needed for living in the woods as a survivalist. Once, he allegedly used a homeowner's computer and credit card to order bear mace and a pair of US$6,500 night vision goggles.
On July 4, 2010, a Cessna 400 single-engine plane was reported stolen from the Bloomington, Indiana airport – it was later found crashed in the shoreline waters of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, again leading to speculation that Harris-Moore was responsible. Shortly afterward, there were several break-ins reported across the island. The Royal Bahamas Police Force placed wanted posters across the island that featured the teenager. One bartender claimed to have spotted him in a sports bar on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, stating that he drank a beer and left after five minutes. He says that Harris-Moore was wearing a cap over his shaved head and was barefoot.
On July 11, 2010, Harris-Moore was captured just before dawn at Harbour Island, Bahamas. Local officers picked up his trail in Eleuthera after recovering a 44 foot power boat stolen from a marina on Great Abaco. A police official said the suspect attempted to flee, but police shot out the engine on his boat. He told the police that he intended to go to Cuba to throw authorities off his trail and proceed to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Harris-Moore pleaded guilty on July 13, 2010 to illegal entry to the Bahamas and illegally landing a plane. He was sentenced to three months in jail or a $300 fine. Harris-Moore's mother wired the money to the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, which in turn paid the fine. He was deported the same day via overnight commercial flight, accompanied by Bahamian authorities and United States agents of the FBI to Miami, Florida.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton_Harris-Moore
Thursday, February 10, 2011
1958 Tybee Island B-47 Crash
The Tybee Island B-47 crash was an incident on February 5, 1958, in which the United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound Mark 15 hydrogen bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, USA. During a practice exercise the B-47 bomber carrying it collided in midair with an F-86 fighter plane. To prevent a detonation in the event of a crash and to save the aircrew, the bomb was jettisoned. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.
The B-47 bomber was on a simulated combat mission from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. It was carrying a single 7,600-pound bomb. At about 2:00 AM, the B-47 collided with an F-86. The F-86 crashed after the pilot ejected from the plane, but the B-47, despite being damaged, remained airborne, albeit barely. The crew requested permission to jettison the bomb in order to reduce weight and prevent the bomb exploding during an emergency landing. Permission was granted and the bomb was jettisoned at 7,200 feet while the bomber was traveling about 200 knots (370 km/h). The crew did not see an explosion when the bomb struck the sea. They managed to land the B-47 safely at Hunter Army Air Field.
Starting on February 6, 1958, the Air Force 2700th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron and 100 Navy personnel equipped with hand held sonar and galvanic drag and cable sweeps mounted a search for the bomb. On April 16, 1958 the military announced that the search efforts had been unsuccessful. Based upon a hydrologic survey, the bomb was thought by the Department of Energy to lie buried under 5 to 15 feet of silt at the bottom of Wassaw Sound.
In 2001, the United States Air Force conducted a study to determine whether the bomb posed a threat to residents of the surrounding area. The Air Force says with certainty that the bomb contains conventional explosives and highly enriched uranium, which could pose an environmental or proliferation threat. The Air Force determined that it was prudent to leave the bomb covered in mud at the bottom of the sea floor rather than disturb it and risk the potential of detonation or contamination.
The risk of corrosion of the alloy casing of the bomb is less if it is completely covered in sand. But if, due to the shifting strata in which it is buried, part of the alloy casing of the bomb is exposed to seawater, rapid corrosion could occur, as demonstrated in simulation experiments. Eventually, the highly enriched uranium could be leached out of the device and enter the aquifer that surrounds the continental shelf in this area. Frequent storms, hurricanes, and strong currents frequently change the sands of the continental shelf near Tybee Island.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_B-47_crash
The B-47 bomber was on a simulated combat mission from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. It was carrying a single 7,600-pound bomb. At about 2:00 AM, the B-47 collided with an F-86. The F-86 crashed after the pilot ejected from the plane, but the B-47, despite being damaged, remained airborne, albeit barely. The crew requested permission to jettison the bomb in order to reduce weight and prevent the bomb exploding during an emergency landing. Permission was granted and the bomb was jettisoned at 7,200 feet while the bomber was traveling about 200 knots (370 km/h). The crew did not see an explosion when the bomb struck the sea. They managed to land the B-47 safely at Hunter Army Air Field.
Starting on February 6, 1958, the Air Force 2700th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron and 100 Navy personnel equipped with hand held sonar and galvanic drag and cable sweeps mounted a search for the bomb. On April 16, 1958 the military announced that the search efforts had been unsuccessful. Based upon a hydrologic survey, the bomb was thought by the Department of Energy to lie buried under 5 to 15 feet of silt at the bottom of Wassaw Sound.
In 2001, the United States Air Force conducted a study to determine whether the bomb posed a threat to residents of the surrounding area. The Air Force says with certainty that the bomb contains conventional explosives and highly enriched uranium, which could pose an environmental or proliferation threat. The Air Force determined that it was prudent to leave the bomb covered in mud at the bottom of the sea floor rather than disturb it and risk the potential of detonation or contamination.
The risk of corrosion of the alloy casing of the bomb is less if it is completely covered in sand. But if, due to the shifting strata in which it is buried, part of the alloy casing of the bomb is exposed to seawater, rapid corrosion could occur, as demonstrated in simulation experiments. Eventually, the highly enriched uranium could be leached out of the device and enter the aquifer that surrounds the continental shelf in this area. Frequent storms, hurricanes, and strong currents frequently change the sands of the continental shelf near Tybee Island.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_B-47_crash
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Shirime
Shirime is a strange yōkai (literally demon, spirit, or monster) with an eye in the place of his anus. The story goes as follows: Long ago, a Samurai was walking at night down the road to Kyōto, when he heard someone calling out for him to wait. "Who's there?!" he asked nervously, only to turn around and find a man stripping off his clothes and pointing his bare buttocks at the flabbergasted traveler. A huge glittering eye then opened up where the strange man's anus should have been. This creature was so liked by the haiku poet and artist Buson that he included it in many of his yōkai paintings.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirime
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirime
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Weird Wacky Tales Involving LSD
MKULTRA
Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MKULTRA involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs and other chemicals, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse.
Once Project MKULTRA officially got underway in April, 1953, experiments included administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions. LSD and other drugs were usually administered without the subject's knowledge or informed consent, a violation of the Nuremberg Code that the U.S. agreed to follow after World War II.
The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA
Also see a related article on Operation Midnight Climax which I did an article on back in March of 2010:
http://weirdweeklywiki.blogspot.com/2010/03/operation-midnight-climax-operation.html
Tusko
Experiments with LSD have also been done on animals; in 1962, an elephant named Tusko died shortly after being injected with 297 mg, but whether the LSD was the cause of his death is controversial (due, in part, to a plethora of other chemical substances administered simultaneously).
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide
Cary Grant
On December 25, 1949, Grant married Betsy Drake. He appeared with her in two films. This would prove to be his longest marriage, ending on August 14, 1962. Drake introduced Grant to LSD, and in the early 1960s he related how treatment with the hallucinogenic drug —legal at the time— at a prestigious California clinic had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved ineffective. The couple divorced in 1962.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant
Dock Ellis
Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. was a professional baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams in Major League Baseball. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game. However, he is perhaps best remembered for throwing a no-hitter in 1970 and later stating that he had done it while under the influence of LSD.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis
Flipper (1963)
One "stunt" dolphin (one of several used in the film) is speared on screen in the peduncle. This is an actual spear-gunning of a live dolphin, not a special effect, which the producers could not afford. The dolphin appears in several subsequent scenes with Luke and the actress playing his mother, having "beached" itself with the spear still sticking out of its tail.
The unnamed dolphin survived this abuse. Producer Ivan Tors gave it to Dr. John C. Lilly, then of the Communication Research Institute in Miami. "It wouldn't come near us," Lilly later said. "I gave it 100 micrograms of LSD, and it was all over us." Tors told Lilly that the dolphin had been speared "by mistake" and that the scene was shot by a second unit without his direct knowledge. Lilly is credited in the film as "scientific adviser".
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1963_film)
Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MKULTRA involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs and other chemicals, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse.
Once Project MKULTRA officially got underway in April, 1953, experiments included administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions. LSD and other drugs were usually administered without the subject's knowledge or informed consent, a violation of the Nuremberg Code that the U.S. agreed to follow after World War II.
The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA
Also see a related article on Operation Midnight Climax which I did an article on back in March of 2010:
http://weirdweeklywiki.blogspot.com/2010/03/operation-midnight-climax-operation.html
Tusko
Experiments with LSD have also been done on animals; in 1962, an elephant named Tusko died shortly after being injected with 297 mg, but whether the LSD was the cause of his death is controversial (due, in part, to a plethora of other chemical substances administered simultaneously).
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide
Cary Grant
On December 25, 1949, Grant married Betsy Drake. He appeared with her in two films. This would prove to be his longest marriage, ending on August 14, 1962. Drake introduced Grant to LSD, and in the early 1960s he related how treatment with the hallucinogenic drug —legal at the time— at a prestigious California clinic had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved ineffective. The couple divorced in 1962.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant
Dock Ellis
Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. was a professional baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams in Major League Baseball. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game. However, he is perhaps best remembered for throwing a no-hitter in 1970 and later stating that he had done it while under the influence of LSD.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis
Flipper (1963)
One "stunt" dolphin (one of several used in the film) is speared on screen in the peduncle. This is an actual spear-gunning of a live dolphin, not a special effect, which the producers could not afford. The dolphin appears in several subsequent scenes with Luke and the actress playing his mother, having "beached" itself with the spear still sticking out of its tail.
The unnamed dolphin survived this abuse. Producer Ivan Tors gave it to Dr. John C. Lilly, then of the Communication Research Institute in Miami. "It wouldn't come near us," Lilly later said. "I gave it 100 micrograms of LSD, and it was all over us." Tors told Lilly that the dolphin had been speared "by mistake" and that the scene was shot by a second unit without his direct knowledge. Lilly is credited in the film as "scientific adviser".
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1963_film)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Violet Jessop
Violet Constance Jessop was an ocean liner stewardess and nurse who achieved fame by surviving the disastrous sinkings of sister ships RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic in 1912 and 1916 respectively. In addition, she had been on board Titanic and Britannic's other sister ship, RMS Olympic, when it collided with the HMS Hawke in 1911.
At age 23, Violet Jessop boarded the RMS Olympic on October 20, 1910 to work as a stewardess. The Olympic was a luxury ship that was the largest civilian liner at that time, being nearly 100 feet longer than any other ship. Olympic's first major mishap occurred on 20 September 1911, when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight. Although the incident resulted in the flooding of two of her compartments and a twisted propeller shaft.
Violet boarded the RMS Titanic as a stewardess on 10 April 1912 and four days later on 14 April, at around 23:40 the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink. Violet described in her memoirs that she was ordered up on deck because she was to set a good example to the foreign speaking people (they did not speak English) where she watched as the crew loaded the lifeboats. She was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and as the boat was being lowered, one of the Titanic's officers gave her a baby to look after. The next morning Violet and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia. According to Violet, while on board the Carpathia, a woman grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off with it without saying a word.
During World War I Violet served as a nurse for the British Red Cross. In 1916, she was on board His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic when the ship apparently struck a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea. While the Britannic was sinking she jumped out of a lifeboat to avoid being sucked into the Britannic's propellers. She was sucked under the water and struck her head on the ship's keel before being rescued by another lifeboat. She had also made sure to grab her toothbrush before leaving her cabin on the Britannic, saying later that it was the one thing she missed most immediately following the sinking of the Titanic.
Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessup
At age 23, Violet Jessop boarded the RMS Olympic on October 20, 1910 to work as a stewardess. The Olympic was a luxury ship that was the largest civilian liner at that time, being nearly 100 feet longer than any other ship. Olympic's first major mishap occurred on 20 September 1911, when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight. Although the incident resulted in the flooding of two of her compartments and a twisted propeller shaft.
Violet boarded the RMS Titanic as a stewardess on 10 April 1912 and four days later on 14 April, at around 23:40 the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink. Violet described in her memoirs that she was ordered up on deck because she was to set a good example to the foreign speaking people (they did not speak English) where she watched as the crew loaded the lifeboats. She was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and as the boat was being lowered, one of the Titanic's officers gave her a baby to look after. The next morning Violet and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia. According to Violet, while on board the Carpathia, a woman grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off with it without saying a word.
During World War I Violet served as a nurse for the British Red Cross. In 1916, she was on board His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic when the ship apparently struck a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea. While the Britannic was sinking she jumped out of a lifeboat to avoid being sucked into the Britannic's propellers. She was sucked under the water and struck her head on the ship's keel before being rescued by another lifeboat. She had also made sure to grab her toothbrush before leaving her cabin on the Britannic, saying later that it was the one thing she missed most immediately following the sinking of the Titanic.
Violet Jessop died of congestive heart failure in 1971.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessup
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