Teddy bears survived the Titanic! There were actually two teddy bears that survived the Titanic, one was a man’s bear and the other was a child’s. This just goes to show you that teddy bears will always be around and that everyone can love a bear.
Believe it or not while everyone was fighting to stay alive and get to a raft a man was separated from his teddy bear. Yes, Gaspare Luigi Gatti, was a man and not a young boy. Mr. Gatti carried the teddy bear everywhere he went, you didn’t see him on the ship without it. He drowned, along with 1500 other voyagers.
Before getting on the ship this little teddy bear had already been through a journey. He’d survived the Blitz, the bombing of his own home in London and finally, he made it through the Titanic. This little teddy bear was seen floating in the water and retrieved, later it would be given back to Gaspare’s widow and she would in turn hand it over to a museum.
In 1992 Merrythought re-created this bear in honor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, it was to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the ship. Only 5000 of these bears were made, each one had yellow mohair and stood to be 8 inches tall.
But Gaspare wasn’t the only one with a teddy bear on the Titanic that day. A little boy named Douglas who had brought along his teddy bear, “Polar” and his mom. They all survived the sinking of the ship, however Douglas would soon die by a fatal car accident. After the death of her son, Daisy Corning Spedden wrote a picture book titled, “Polar the Titanic Bear Book.” Daisy never did send this book out, in fact it was many decades later that her great grandnephew would find it hidden away inside her attic. The Steiff Company would make a reproduction of “Polar” of only 1000 bears.
