Douglas Spedden

Robert Douglas Spedden (19 November 1905 – 6 August 1915) was a child survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. After surviving the sinking, his mother Daisy Spedden wrote the book Polar the Titanic Bear for him. Spedden died three years after the sinking, when he was hit by an automobile.

Robert Douglas Spedden
Douglas Spedden (center right) playing on the Titanic, April 1912
Born(1905-11-19)November 19, 1905[1]
DiedAugust 6, 1915(1915-08-06) (aged 9)
Known forA Passenger On The ill-fated RMS Titanic in 1912

Background

Spedden was aboard the Titanic at age six, travelling with his family back to their home in Tuxedo Park, New York,[2] following a family trip through Algeria.[3] On board the ship for the first leg of the trip, from Southampton, England, to Cobh, Ireland, was Jesuit priest Francis Browne; by chance, Browne captured a photograph of Spedden playing with a spinning top on the deck of the Titanic.[4]

Sinking

On April 14, the evening of the sinking, traveling in first class, Spedden was put to bed in his compartment. During the sinking he awoke briefly when his nurse Elisabeth Burns told him she was taking him "on a trip to see the stars".[5] He is reported to have slept through the rest of the sinking, waking up in a lifeboat the next morning.[6]

Death

He died in 1915 at age nine, after being hit by an automobile.[7][8]

Spedden was included briefly in the 1997 film Titanic, played by actor Thomas Fiss. Spedden's mother Daisy Corning Stone Spedden wrote the book Polar the Titanic Bear for Douglas. The book documents the family's travels, and includes a section on the family's survival of the Titanic's sinking.[9]

References
  1. Behe, George (29 February 2012). On Board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-8305-4.
  2. LIFE, The Editors of (16 February 2018). LIFE Titanic: The Tragedy that Shook the World: One Century Later. Time Home Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-5478-4172-1. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  3. "Ancestry magazine". Ancestry Inc.
  4. Rothman, Lily. "100 Years Later: A Snapshot of Life on the Titanic". Time.
  5. Hinke, Veronica (2 April 2019). The Last Night on the Titanic: Unsinkable Drinking, Dining, and Style. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-62157-729-4.
  6. Hopper, Tristin (15 April 2021). "The boy who slept through the sinking of the Titanic". National Post.
  7. Studies in the Literary Imagination. Department of English, Georgia State University. 2006.
  8. Smith, Mac (15 June 2014). Mainers on the Titanic. Down East Books. ISBN 978-1-60893-305-1.
  9. Rasor, Eugene L. (2001). The Titanic: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31215-1.
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