Latest / Ridiculous History / Violet Jessop, the Unsinkable Stewardess Who Survived Three Famous Shipwrecks

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Violet Jessop, the Unsinkable Stewardess Who Survived Three Famous Shipwrecks · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you so much for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: tuning in. We do hope you enjoyed our previous episode
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: on the mysterious not so mysterious story of the Mary Celeste.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Why do we hope you enjoyed it because this story
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: is also about the ocean and ships and unfortunate things
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: occurring related to those two Hi, I'm betting, Hi'm no. Yeah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we're continuing in a bit of a nautical theme here.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We're doing themed episodes. Yeah, we're getting it together. It's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna happen. We're gonna get to the rest of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: those states that we never covered. We might do that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Nixon episode, assuming super producer Casey Pegram lets us. It's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a little tough sell. Can I do a little disclaimer
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: here at the top of the show, not a disclaimer,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: disclaim I don't know whatever exclamation Perhaps I don't know
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the order of the twelve days of Christmas. This does
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: this bother you? It bothers me? Then, Because um, my
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: name is Noel often mispronounced as Noel. It is a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Christmas e name. I should be a Christmas expert Uh.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And on that episode, I'm gonna blame the noog, the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: very strong knog. I kind of sounded like a blithering
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: idiot when it comes to the chronology of the Twelve
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Days of Christmas? Am I really bothered by it? Did
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I lose sleep over the holidays? Yes? Absolutely? Okay, well
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I thought I did. Think it was weird because you
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you said, I'm going to quiz myself and this will
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: be fun, and I didn't know what Casey and I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: were supposed to do, but try to help you. It's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: just weird because it was like it was like a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: little bit of I think you doing your own thing. Well,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: it was a little bit of me trying to flex
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: my Christmas chops, which apparently are non existent. I was impressive.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: You just remembered what the gifts were. The order doesn't
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: really whatever. The thing that I got so fundamentally wrong
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is I claimed that they do not go in chronological order. Uh.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And that is just absolutely false. That there's you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the first day is one thing, the second day you
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: get two things, third day you get three things. So
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: there's not like five on the third day or something
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: like that. On the fifth day you get five golden rings. Okay, okay,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Well that that would probably bother me if I made that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I I made this claim that they were not chronological,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that they they were willy nilly, and that's just not
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the case. So now I've got it off my chest.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I feel so much better. So thank you guys for
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: indulging me in that. I like that we're doing things
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: out of order again because this comes out second, but
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: we're talking about the episode that came before. Yeah, but
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that's okay. That starts edition. It's it's a new tradition.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It is on the case. Well, well, I'm glad you
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: feel better, and hopefully you'll also make you feel better
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to know that I think you're you're the only one
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: who was upset about that. I think everybody was fine.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It was endearing. Reports of my upsetted nous have been
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: much exaggerated by myself. Okay, I suspected as much. Uh
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: have you guys ever been in a in a accident
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of any sort, like a vehicular accident, I mean not
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like a accidental switchero of of of a name or
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: something like that, but like a car accident that would
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: be the most common for people in the US, right
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: or a bicycle accident. Do you have any stories about that? Yeah?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: If I once, uh had a bird scooter accident, I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: jacked my wrist up pretty bad for quite a few months.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I've been in a couple of fender benders and cars,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: but that's about the bird scooter was the most dramatic
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: by far. Though. The bird scooters are also leaving the city,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: thank god, Yeah they are. What about the lift scooters?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I think all of the scooters of that variety. You're kidding,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: that's the rumor coup. Well, we'll see, we'll see how
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it how it works out, Uh, probably because of some
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of the things you've mentioned, you know, and I know
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you're a careful scooterist. Casey, what about you? Do you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: have any accidents? Nothing too serious? Um, just a few
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: times like minor finner binner's kind of getting like tapped
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: in the bumper at a stoplight or something, but thankfully
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  Speaker 1: nothing too U too drastic. Guys. Now, I feel a
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: little bit awkward because I have been in tons of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: accidents and tons of near misses. I was almost in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a plane crash, by which I mean I was in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a plane that almost crashed. I was in a school
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: bus that almost went careening off a cliff and did
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: actually get some air on the front right tire. I
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: have been in numerous car accidents, uh, numerous bike accidents.
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  Speaker 1: I have not yet been in a boating or maritime accident.
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  Speaker 1: And and I think we're talking about here, neither none
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: of us have been. Right, Casey had my favorite line. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I was asking myself, have I been on a ship?
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  Speaker 1: Have I been on a boat? Because I really wasn't sure.
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  Speaker 1: I know, I've been on some ferries, and uh, I've
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  Speaker 1: been on some like small boats like you know, Lake
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  Speaker 1: Lanier scale kind of stuff, just like four or five
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  Speaker 1: people kind of thing. But I don't think I've ever
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  Speaker 1: been on like a big ship, like a cruise ship
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  Speaker 1: kind of thing. But I did have to kind of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: ask myself that I didn't really know off end, Wait,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: have you ever taken like a tour of a battleship
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  Speaker 1: that was moored, like that was docked. Yeah, I've done that.
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  Speaker 1: I have done that, but I feel like that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: count because it's anchored and stationary and you're not out
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  Speaker 1: on the open water. I could absolutely say that is
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  Speaker 1: the only scenario where I've set foot on a large
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  Speaker 1: scale ship. I think I've walked around a submarine even
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: in that same capacity, you're a real man of mr.
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  Speaker 1: It's because when I was a kid like that, that
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  Speaker 1: was the kind of stuff my dad would always want
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  Speaker 1: to do when we're on vacation. It's like go see
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  Speaker 1: the boat or whatever, and uh, you know, it didn't
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  Speaker 1: interest me that much. But yeah, I feel like vaguely
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  Speaker 1: that I've I've done some of that stuff. A bit
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of a history buff Huh. Yeah, please in the navy.
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  Speaker 1: So there you go. That makes sense that that that
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  Speaker 1: makes sense I've had. I've had similar experiences. I've been
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  Speaker 1: on large boats that haven't wrecked while I was on them.
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  Speaker 1: But even if you have been in uh in a
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  Speaker 1: record unfortunate incident on the high seas, you probably haven't
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  Speaker 1: had the experience of today's protagonist, Violet Jessup, who has
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: as Gabe likes to call her, a research associate. Gabe
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  Speaker 1: likes to call her the unsinkable Stewardess. Consider this, like,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: if the if the four of us or five of us,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the three of us recording you listening, if
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  Speaker 1: we were all on a boat together, Let's say, through
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: some weird series of circumstances, you ended up on a themed,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: ridiculous history cruise, which I have a I have a
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  Speaker 1: tough time saying that with a straight face. But what
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  Speaker 1: if we were on this ridiculous history cruise and the
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  Speaker 1: cruise ship crashed and not everybody got out, but you survived.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't you consider yourself very lucky? Absolutely? Wouldn't you also
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: never go on a boat again. I don't think I
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  Speaker 1: would know. And and maybe there's a reason that I
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  Speaker 1: am not a cruise type person, because it seems kind
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  Speaker 1: of like being part of a weird herd that just
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  Speaker 1: goes to like, you know, it's being like in prison,
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  Speaker 1: like on a on the sea, where you have to
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  Speaker 1: go eat at a certain time, go play shuffle board
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  Speaker 1: at a certain time. Hey, correct me if I'm wrong, folks,
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  Speaker 1: if I'm mischaracterizing what is perhaps a very enjoyable experience. Um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and the Titanic was meant to be a
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  Speaker 1: pleasure cruise. That was the idea. It was very very
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  Speaker 1: high class. Only the best of the best, high society
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  Speaker 1: folks were able to get a ticket and violate. Jessup
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  Speaker 1: was one of the attendants on that voyage, that doomed voyage, right,
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  Speaker 1: Violet called since Jessup enjoyed incredible luck she had. She
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: had a really stressful existence. She actually survived not one,
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  Speaker 1: but three different shipwrecks. She was born in eighteen seven
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  Speaker 1: in Argentina. Her parents were Irish immigrants, and as a child,
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  Speaker 1: she unfortunately contracted tuberculosis and was officially diagnosed with just
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a few months to live. However, obviously she survived. However,
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  Speaker 1: six of her eight siblings died young, and her father
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  Speaker 1: also died when she was relatively young, and the family
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  Speaker 1: returned to Britain. Her mother became a stewardess for the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Royal Male Line while Violet attendant school at a convent,
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  Speaker 1: and then her mother's health declined, so Violet gave up
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: school to become a stewardess herself. Yeah, she followed in
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  Speaker 1: her mother's footsteps seven, joining the Royal Male Line and
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  Speaker 1: then White Star, the apparent company of the Titanic. But
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: it wasn't easy. Um. She was twenty one. She didn't
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  Speaker 1: really have much experience experience at all, um, and most
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  Speaker 1: of the folks that were in this industry were seasoned
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  Speaker 1: veterans in their you know, thirties to early forties. Um,
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  Speaker 1: And she was very green and was trying to get
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  Speaker 1: into this industry, following in her mother's footsteps, and she
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  Speaker 1: was rejected quite a bit. Yeah, get a get a
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  Speaker 1: lotat of the sexism here. People who might be her
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  Speaker 1: future employers said that her youth and good looks would
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  Speaker 1: be disadvantageous and they were worried this would cause problems
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  Speaker 1: with the crew and the passengers. And it is true
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  Speaker 1: that over the course of her career, Jessup got at
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  Speaker 1: least three marriage proposals that we know of while she
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  Speaker 1: was working on one ship or another. Uh, and one
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  Speaker 1: was from a very well healed gentleman. So Violet takes
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: this quote unquote problem into her own hand. She decides
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  Speaker 1: to make herself look frumpy. And in this this description
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  Speaker 1: reminds me of you know, all those rom com movies
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  Speaker 1: where someone is uh supposed to be mousey and they're
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  Speaker 1: a librarian for like the first two thirds of the movie,
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  Speaker 1: but they're clearly a movie star level attractive person. They
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  Speaker 1: just wear different. They wear like a cardigan and classes
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: or something. Well, we were talking about like the reverse
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  Speaker 1: of that, because the trope is like the very the
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  Speaker 1: secretly attractive person um just doesn't understand her inner beauty
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  Speaker 1: and then you know, when she takes off the glasses
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  Speaker 1: and lets down the nerdy hair bun or all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, you know, the hot football guy sees her
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  Speaker 1: for who she truly is beautiful. Exactly what she's doing
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  Speaker 1: here is almost a Mulan style situation where she's trying
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  Speaker 1: to pass for unattractive and old um, which is really
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  Speaker 1: interesting that she would have had to do that, especially
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: knowing what we know about the other side of the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: sexism that would ultimately become like, you know, we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about pan Am and you know the age of the swinging,
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  Speaker 1: you know, sky lounges and attractive stewardesses in many skirts. Stewardesses,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: by the way, not an okay term to use. Flight
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  Speaker 1: attendant if you please this or steward the head steward
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I believe I think that's probably finding stewardess recalls these
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: sexist days. I was listening to an interview on NPR
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  Speaker 1: with someone who's the head of that particular union, and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the interviewer asked if that term was okay to use,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and she very much was like no, because it's hearkens
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: back to these these times and then the future times
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  Speaker 1: where you know that kind of uh attractive dress was encouraged,
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  Speaker 1: if not required, mandatory. It was mandatory, and they also
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't be married, and they also had to be below
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  Speaker 1: a certain age. Yeah, I got real nasty, I would say, though,
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  Speaker 1: I'm what I'm arguing here is that the same way
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  Speaker 1: that Romcom troops like resting differently, don't fool the audience.
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  Speaker 1: This also clearly did not fool the real life passengers
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  Speaker 1: with whom she interacted, hence the marriage proposals, but it
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: did fool the people she interviewed with because she said,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna wear makeup. I'm gonna try to wear old,
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  Speaker 1: out of style, ill fitting clothing and it works. She
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  Speaker 1: gets hired. She has a brief stint on a Royal
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: mail line steamer the Orinoco, and in she's hired by
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  Speaker 1: the White Star line. She originally did not want to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: work for White Star because she didn't like the idea
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: of the North Atlantic run. She had a problem with
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the weather, and she had heard stories about the passengers
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: they were notorious for being real pills. But she decided
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  Speaker 1: to do it anyway. She worked seventeen hours a day.
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  Speaker 1: She was paid two dollars and ten shillings per month.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So after UM, you know, some some struggles and finding
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a situation that she like, she um ultimately found herself
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: on the RMS Olympic, which was at the time the
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  Speaker 1: largest civilians called passenger liner. Um. She's twenty three at
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the time, and that is also when she would have
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: her very first shipwreck situation. Right in nineteen eleven, the
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  Speaker 1: Olympic collided with the h MS Hawk, and the Hawk
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was not a passenger liner. It was a ship that
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: was designed to sink other ships by ramming them. Both
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: of the ships had pretty substantial damage. The Olympic had
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: its whole breach below the waterline, but through some miracle,
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  Speaker 1: it did not actually sink and was able to make
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  Speaker 1: it back to port. Violet survived the shipwreck. She wasn't
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  Speaker 1: even injured. Both ships were later repaired put back into service.
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  Speaker 1: So no harm, no foul. A frightening event for for sure,
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  Speaker 1: but not a fatal one and as as we know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: UM there weren't deaths involved there. There was no fatality crash,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: but still for many people that would be more than
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: enough to put you off of put you off a boat,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to make you a land lubber. For life. This was
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: not the case with Violet. A few years later, the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: White Star Line was looking for a crew to uh
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to serve the very important people aboard their premiership, the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: jewel in their crown, a ship that they, along with
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: all the media by the way, called unsinkable, and that
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: ship was the Titanic. Violet didn't really want to join
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the Titanic, but her friends were talking to her and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: they were like, you know, Violet, this is gonna be
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a wonderful experience. Is one of the kind ship. It's unsinkable.
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  Speaker 1: Bo bo bo bo boo. Her friends spoke with echoes
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and the really dramatic parts. Uh So she said, all right,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna join up. It was a big deal.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: It was an event. You know. It was sort of
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: like the Boeing Dreamliner or something of the time. You know,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of fuss being made out of this technological marvel.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Everyone who was anyone was going to be on the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: maiden voyage. It was absolutely a cultural event. And her
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: friends are probably like, you gotta be a part of this.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It's a big deal. You're gonna see so many famous people.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: It's going to be part of history. You do not
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: want to pass this up, So she didn't really care.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I don't think it didn't seem like from her history, uh,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: to be super drawn to any of this glitz and glamour.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: She just wanted to work right. Yeah, And we have
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: we have a little bit of firsthand reporting from her
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: via her memoirs, and we know that she was initially happy.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I see, in no small part she was surprised by
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the nature of her life on the ship. She loved
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that the designer, Thomas Andrews, appeared to have paid attention
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to the cruise request for better quarters. She said. Often
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: during our rounds we came upon our beloved designer going
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: about unobtrusively with a tired face but satisfied air. He
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: never failed to stop for a cheerful word, his only
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: regret being that we were getting further from home. We
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: all knew the love that he had for that Irish
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: home of his, and suspected that he loaned to get
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: back to the piece of its atmosphere for a much
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: needed rest and to forget ship designing for a while.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: And she also, you know, we learned about her day
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to day on the on the Titanic Um she claims
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to be friends with notable characters who were on the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: boat at the same time. We even know some stuff
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: about her roommate. We know that she found solace in
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: walking around on deck at night, taking a little I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: guess nightcap walk to get some of that fresh air.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And then we know something a little bit I would
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: say ominous. Her roommate brought along a copy of a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: translated Hebrew prayer that she said an elderly Irish woman
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: had given her, and it was strangely worded as nearest
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: she in. Her roommate, Elizabeth Leather could tell it was
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: supposed to protect her against fire and water. We should
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: mention at this point Violet was a devout Catholic. She
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: carried rosary in her apron she you know, she was
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a person given to praying as as she deemed it necessary.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the night of that fateful collision
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: April of nineteen twelve, when Violet was kind of dozing
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: off in her bunk. She claims to have not been
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: fully asleep, but kind of just in a drowsy state.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Um when that collision and with an iceberg took place. Yeah, yeah,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: she is ordered up on deck. She says. Passengers are
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: strolling out calmly. She and her co workers watch watch
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the women and children being put into life boats, and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: then a ship's officer orders them into a boat, um first,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: just to show some funeral passengers it's safe. And then
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: as the boat is being lowered, she recalls this officer
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: in question says, here, miss jessup, look after this baby
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and just hands him a baby. I don't want to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: be that's a that's a very intense situation to be in. Yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And the quote from her actually describes it even more intense.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: It says, and a bundle was dropped onto my lap.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: That implies I guess the boat was being lowered down
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and somebody just dropped a baby off the edge of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the ship into the lifeboat, which would have been a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: little way as beneath. I mean, good thing. He caught it, Violet.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Good catch. So they survive. They're only in the boat
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: for about eight horrifying hours before they and other survivors
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: are picked up by the Carpathia into Her life was
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: saved entirely because that officer asked her to get in
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a lifeboat. Because there were other passengers who didn't speak
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: English and couldn't communicate very well, and seeing her get
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: in the lifeboat would persuade the other people to to
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: follow her example. So when they were rescued by the Carpathia,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the person that Jessup thought might be the baby's mother
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: found Violet Jessup and took the baby away, literally grabbed
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: it out of her arms and ran off. She says,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: I was still clutching the baby against my hard cork
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: life belt I was wearing when a woman leaped at
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: me and grabbed the baby rushed off with it. It
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: appeared that she put it down on the deck of
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the Titanic while she went off to fetch something. When
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: she came back, the baby had gone. I was too
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: frozen and numb to think. It's strange that this woman
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: had not stopped to say thank you. And we also
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: don't know if that was really the baby's mother or
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: if it was just, uh, somebody who had put a
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: child down earlier and just grabbed a baby because they
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: thought it was there. Totally, I mean, this would have
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: been like absolutely, you know mayhem um, so right, she
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: definitely survived her second pretty catastrophic um ship collision. Yeah,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: So again, you would think most other people. I don't
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: want to pay with the broad brush, but I feel
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: comfortable saying this. Most other people after Big shipwreck number
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: two would probably say, I don't know, maybe I'll maybe
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I'll get into uh, you know, like gardening, or maybe
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I will become an interior designer. One would think, Um,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: there's a Gizmoto article about Jessup that has a pretty
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: interesting almost when you read it makes it seem a
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: little flippant where she says it was only after a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: little while passed after the wreck that she real she
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: had left her toothbrush on board, and then she was
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: she was a little upset about that. That's a that's
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: an odd thing to worry about. I mean, that's how
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: shock happens. Though, if you if you have ever been
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in catastrophic situations or seeing people in shock, it's it's
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: easy to find one specific thing and worry about just that.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to even be a traumatic, physically
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: dangerous situation. You can see people freak out at social
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: events like weddings, you know, or or or funerals. Um,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a fascinating thing about psychology. And
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: although many people lost their lives and Violet Jessup tragically
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: lost her toothbrush. She found another, and she said, you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: know what, maybe the sea got me last time, but
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't sink, and I'm not gonna let my career
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: sink either. So as we're in the lead up to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: World War One, she says, I'm going to serve as
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a nurse on board the Britannic, which was a sister
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of the Titanic, operating the G and C. And the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Britannic was a white star liner that had been converted
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to a hospital ship during World War One. It's so
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: interesting that she would not only continue working on ships,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: but work with the same company. Uh. Maybe it was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: like not fully realized right away what an absolute catastrophic
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: failing the sinking of the Titanic was, you know that
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: it was. I don't know what what was the post
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: mortem for the Titanic. Wasn't there a flaw in the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: design because they had this whole like these compartments that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: kept filling up with water. Wasn't there something more to
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: it than? I mean, like it was. It's also a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: lot of human error, human error, that's right. I think
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it was more human error than it was the design
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: was a pretty decent one, but it just failed miserably
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: because of the extent to which the ship was just
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: like breached, right, the whole was breached by that very
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: pointy iceberg. Um. So yeah, she not only did she
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: stay working for the same company, she goes aboard the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: sister ship of the ship that just sank in an
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: absurdly traumatic fashion. Um. But she seems like a really
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: good person because she's very much just wants to help.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Like she decides she's going to become a nurse and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: put any of these, uh, these fears aside so that
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: she can, you know, get back to work and help people. Uh.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And that's when in nineteen sixteen, the Britannic hit a
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: mine that had been planted by one of those infamous
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: German U boats um that were so tricky with their
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: kind of covert operations out there in the oceans. Um.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And it was damaged pretty significantly and started to sink
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and violate. Uh. This time wasn't quite as lucky as
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: she was when she was on the Titanic. She didn't
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: get a spot on one of those lifeboats, did she? No, no,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: not at all. We shallso did did we? Did we
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: mention how long the boat was in action the britic No,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: it was less than an hour. It was it was
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a hospital ship to World War one for about fifty
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: five minutes. Uh at least in this in this iteration,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and you're right, Noll. Violet did not get on a lifeboat.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: She jumped overboard. She almost got sucked into the propellers,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: which would spell certain death. They were sticking up out
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of the water, they were still running. She hit her
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: head on the ship's keel, and she probably would have died.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: This was one of her most extreme shipwrecks. However, as
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: luck would have a passengers of a nearby lifeboat saw
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: her body and were able to pull her in. We
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: have her own words about this experience. She says, I
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: leapt into the water, but was sucked under the ship's keel,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: which struck my head. I escaped, but years later when
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I went to my doctor because of a lot of headaches,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: he discovered I had once sustained a fracture of the skull.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And and she even kind of joked that the only
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: reason she survived was because she had a very thick
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: head of hair, which she characterized as having um kind
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of helped soften the blow a bit, but she wouldn't
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: know for years that she actually fractured her skull hitting
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: her head there. And there's a Mental Floss article about
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the Unsinkable Violet jessup Um that mentions something that she
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: has said in an interview um where when she um
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: abandoned the Titanic and she was so concerned about missing
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: her toothbrush. With this one, she really was a big
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: stickler for oral hygiene. It would seem because she grabbed
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: her toothbrush on the rapidly sinking Britannic. Um, I'm assuming
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: clutching it in her fist. Do you think do you
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: think she made it? Do you think she do you
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: think it like I like to think of her pirate
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: style with it in between her teeth like a like
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: a knife. But she probably grabbed it or put it
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: in a pocket or something. But yeah, you know, you
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: if he can say anything about Violet jessif it's that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: she got her priorities straight. And also imagine if you're
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: a fervently religious person, a devoutly religious person, then this
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: feels like proof of a higher power. Right, It's the
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: third shipwreck that you've survived. The odds are against you, right,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: And you know, we talked about the top of the show,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: this idea of her being really really lucky. You could
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: say that you could also say that she wasn't particularly lucky.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: She was in three shipwrecks. She did survive, but almost
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: like you know, bad luck kind of followed her and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: she luckily was able to kind of dodge the blow.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Um it's it's a glass half full is but this
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: was finally, um reason enough for her to seek alternate employment,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but still in the ship business. She left the White
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Star line. She went to the Red Star Line. She
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: did she worked as an attendant on cruises. Still seems
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to be tempting star right. Well, I guess after your
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: three shipwreck you decide you're going to change at least
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the color. Luckily, she was never involved in a shipwreck
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: of catastrophic sort again. After World War Two, she worked
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: as a clerk for a while, but then she went
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: back to working on Royal male ships for a while,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and then when she retired at the age of sixty one,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: she spent her time gardening and raising chickens. Uh. We
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: do know that she got married once in her late thirties,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: but all we know about the marriage is that she
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: described it as brief and disastrous. She did a lot
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of interviews. She was interviewed for Woman magazine when the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: film A Night to Remember was released in nineteen fifty eight,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and her home was filled with mementos of her time
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: at sea. Yeah, and you don't really think of the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: world looking for a ship attendance. I don't want to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: use stewarts. We said that was a bad one on
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the top, but I guess at the time that was
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: what they were called. You don't really think of stewardesses
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in these days writing very noteworthy memoirs. But if you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: think about it, Um she had a complete insiders perspective
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: on the Titanic and everything that took place. In fact,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: some people think that the character of Lucy in the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: John Cameron Titanic film was based on on jessup Um.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: She also had just I mean, you know that being
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: in that position on all of these different ships is
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: pretty interesting from a historical perspective, just to talk about
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the way things happened, not to mention some pretty significant
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: maritime disasters. So she wrote a memoir Um very soon
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: after retiring at the age of sixty three, and she
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: wrote quite well by all accounts, um it was very
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: articulate and was able to really give a look at
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: life at sea from that vantage point and saw a
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: lot out of things that the average passenger or the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: captain wouldn't see, because a cabin attendant moves through all
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the hierarchies of the ship and is familiar with everything
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: before the curtain and behind it. So we get a
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: little bit of a of a downton abbey vibe, you know,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: where they have the downstairs people in the upstairs people.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: And here our tail draws to a close. Is Violet
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: just up the only person to survive multiple shipwrecks? Absolutely not.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Is she one of the most well known people to
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: survive multiple shipwrecks? Absolutely But this made us think off
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: air about other strange, you know, close brushes with death,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: like the people, Uh I think, Casey, you may have
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier people getting struck by lightning multiple times. That happens. Yeah,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: there's been a few, uh well known cases I guess
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: of that happening. And no, contrary to what uh certain
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: films may have you believe, it does not give you superpowers.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I'm also thinking what would be the weirdest vehicle to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: wrect Maybe a blimp nowadays, that'd be a weird one
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to wreck. Well, yeah, I mean we've got the Hindenburg.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: That's so it's been done. It's been done. Maybe. Yeah,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I've already got the bird scooter thing on. Yeah, you've
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: got that one hot air balloon maybe, But I feel
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: like those sort of wreck anyway. Do you guys remember
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: balloon boy? Whose balloon Boy? It was a fake story,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: but it was reported as real for a while that
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: there's some kid who like got into a hot air
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: balloon and it took off without his parents, and so
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: they were like, we gotta get the kid down. And
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: you know, there's like news cameras following this hot air
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: balloon just floating around, and uh turns out the family
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: was in on it. The kid was hiding at home,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and uh they just did it for like reality show
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: publicity kind of stuff. Wow, terrible parents. Uh okay, well,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: let let us know what what vehicle we should try
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: to be involved. I don't that sounds weird when I
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: say it that way. Oh, A Chrono blonds, you know
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: about those? They're these weird half boat half plane things.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: E k R A n O plan. Look it up
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: when you have time. Folks. It's it's very strange. I've
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: always wanted to to be in one, and if I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: were driving or piloting, I would probably wreck it. But
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: this concludes our story. We know that everybody has had
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: these close brushes with disaster and it can it can
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: fundamentally alter your worldview. But how would you feel after
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: shipwrecked number one? How would you feel about shipwrecked number two? Great?
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: About either? Right? Right? And I think, uh, here in
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the studio, at least the three of us are pretty
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: unanimous that at least after shipwrecked number two, we would
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: give some serious consideration to staying on land. But you know,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: three people, that's a small sample size. Give us your thoughts.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. You can finds
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, you can find us on Facebook, you can
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: find us on Twitter. We especially love to recommend our
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: community page Ridiculous Historians on Facebook. Yeah, how you do
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: have have to invoke one or both or uh the
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: three of our names and you're in like Flynn, or
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: just say something, make make any of us laugh, or
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: just make a make a silly reference to a topic
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: on this show, just to let us know that You're
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: not Russian Bach. You can also find us in our
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: poisonal lives on on the internet. I am at Ben
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Bullen on Instagram and I'm at Ben Bullin hs W
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: on Twitter. You can find me exclusively on Instagram at
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: how Now Noel Brown. Huge thanks to our super producer
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram, Alex Williams, who composed our theme. Research associate
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Extraordinary Gabe Big, Big thanks of course to Christopher Hasiotis.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Big thanks also to Eve's Jeff Coat and Jonathan Strickland,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a k a. The Quister, who shall be returning soon.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I do also want to say is you know the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: three of us travel quite frequently, and I'm a person
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: who travels all the time. I want to say thank
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you so much to everyone who works in the travel industry,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: whether you are moving goods from one place to another
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: for people, whether you are working as a flight or
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: cabin attendant, which I could never do, whether you are
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: a pilot so on, thank you, thank you very much.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: And I do want to say for everybody who is
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: traveling as a passenger, whether on a plane, train, or
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a boat or an automobile, uh please please just behave yourselves.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: People get crazy in planes. We should do something about
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: that at some point, as an episode or as a society. Absolutely, Ben,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: have you ever seen the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Yeah,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I recently watched it for the first time and which
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: found it heartwarming, funny and and just an all around delight.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: How about you. Oh yeah, that's a that's a great
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: monologue that we can't quote here. Yeah, there's there's one
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: scene that makes it an R rated movie. It is
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: a a very soft PG thirteen prior to this one
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: scene where uh, Steve Martin um goes ham on a
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: rental car attendance. Uh. And it's it's one of the
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: best uses of the F word I have seen in
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: a film because it actually they earn it, and it's
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: definitely for shock value because you don't get anything like that.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: But he has worked his way up to being this
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: enraged and it absolutely does feel earned. Also, Steve Martin
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: is an amazing banjo player, one of the best, one
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of the best. It's a true story. You see you
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: next time, folks. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.