Jessop was a 24-year-old stewardess aboard the RMS Titanic when it hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912. She quickly got out of bed, dressed, and helped women and children into the lifeboats before she was given a baby and told to get into a lifeboat herself. 

Four years later, after training to become a nurse with the British Red Cross, she was sent to serve on the hospital ship HMHS Britannic. On Nov. 21, 1916, the ship hit a mine. She escaped into a lifeboat which was nearly sucked into the Brittanic's propellers, but she survived and continued to serve on boats for another 34 years before retiring.