An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor

Product Information

In 2010, Tim created a Facebook campaign dedicated to achieving official recognition for the Annascaul born explorer. Of the final eight men that reached within 170 miles of the pole after an arduous trek across Antarctica’s unforgiving terrain, five would be chosen to basque in the glory of being the first to reach the South Pole. Scott chose to disappoint his second in command Lieutenant Evans, William Lashly, another hardy polar veteran and a tearful Tom Crean. As Crean waved goodbye to his colleagues little was he to know that it would be the last time he would see them alive again. Tom and Ellen would go on to have three children, Mary, Eileen and Kate, the middle child, Kate, suffered from ailments throughout her short life and passed away aged 3 in 1924 soon after she had returned with her parents from a trip to Lourdes as part of the Irish National Pilgrimage.

Tom Crean in 1915 on board Endurance, ice-bound in the Weddel Sea. (Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge) Again Crean would excel on this quest, albeit none of the expeditions aims were achieved by the Endurance, but what did unfold from this chapter of failure, was one of, if not the greatest survival story, of all time.After heroically guiding the Wills to Elephant Island, and being one of only two men able to stand after the effort, Crean was soon among the six man crew, that would attempt to reach the outpost of South Georgia, some 800 miles away, across the Weddell Sea. Their only hope of rescue lay with the Norwegians who manned the whaling stations, on the otherwise uninhabited island. At this point in the story, the news publications and history books, quite naturally, focus their attention on Scott’s failed attempt to be the first human to plant a flag at the South Pole. It was though, an accolade that would fall to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Tom Crean is one of the most iconic figures in Irish history. Born in 1877 in County Kerry, he enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen, the start of a career that would bring him to the most extreme environments on Earth. Tom probably left school around the age of 12, with little more than the ability to read and write, and he would have done so to help out on the family farm. It is thought that one day while at work on the farm, and tending to cattle, Tom allowed them to stray into a field of potatoes, much to his father’s annoyance, and during the resulting argument, Tom vowed to run away to sea.

It was a huge blow to Crean, who rightly felt he should have been among the Polar Party. Of the eight men who stood on the ice that day, within striking distance of the South Pole, Tom Crean was the fittest, the strongest, and probably the most capable of completing the task, and survive the homeward journey.

In 18 hours and after an arduous march in ever worsening conditions, an exhausted Tom Crean summoned the help required to save his commander. His feat was to earn him and his colleague Lashly, who’d stayed behind to nurse the critical patient, the Albert Medal for their remarkable display of bravery. The Terra Nova expedition was to become the first of Tom Crean’s three journeys to Antarctica that would document his heroism. It was whilst returning from a mission to establish stores at One Ton Depot that would prove vital for Scotts attempt to reach the Pole, that Crean’s disregard for his own safety led him to summon help for two colleagues who were left stranded on an ice floe. Over the course of his career, a number of publications have featured Tim’s articles and in 2017 he decided to utilise his many years of research and study into the life of Tom Crean to compile a biography about Tom Crean. Later, Crean was one of the large group that departed with Scott in November 1911 for the attempt at the South Pole. This journey had three stages: 400 statute miles (640 km) across the Barrier, 120 statute miles (190 km) up the heavily crevassed Beardmore Glacier to an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level, and then another 350 statute miles (560 km) to the Pole.* The biography titled ‘Crean: The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero’ takes us from Crean’s early life up to an account of how the campaign to honour Tom Crean, created by Tim Foley in 2010, celebrated a great victory in 2021, when a government-funded scientific vessel was named RV Tom Crean, in recognition of the great Kerryman.

On the Discovery expedition, Tom Crean also experienced being caught out in temperatures as low as -54 C, falling through thin ice into frigid waters, twice almost losing his life as a result and of course living on a ship that is completely entrapped by ice, for almost two years. When Discovery finally slipped from its icy hold and returned to Portsmouth in September 1904, Tom had firmly established himself as one of the most reliable and valuable crew members aboard, so much so that Scott singled him out for special mention for his ‘ meritorious service throughout‘ and promoted him to Petty Officer 1st Class.From a young age Tim had been left fascinated by the heroic tales of Tom Crean, whose story he discovered while spending much of his time in his father’s birthplace near Castlemaine in County Kerry, Ireland.

In the early hours of May 19th the men roped themselves together and climbed into the unknown interior of the island. They faced peaks, glaciers, crevasses and freezing temperatures, all of which they overcame on a continuous 37 hour march, which ended with their miraculous arrival at the Stromness whaling station on the islands eastern coast. Fearing Evans would die unless something drastic was done, Tom Crean decided to strike for Hut Point himself, leaving Lashly to care for Evans in a hastily erected tent. Crean took no sleeping bag with him as he did not intend stopping until he had reached help, and the only sustenance he carried were a couple of biscuits and some chocolate. Yet, amazingly after 18 hours Crean arrived at Hut Point, just ahead of a ferocious blizzard, and raised the alarm. It was February 19th and Tom Crean had just completed an act which has been widely hailed as the single most, greatest act of bravery, in the history of exploration. When the blizzard had passed a rescue team set off to find Evans and Lashly, and politely refused Crean’s plea to join them. Tom Crean’s penury is more easily dealt with than the complexities of political and social life in Ireland during the 1920s and 1930s. Crean was one of ten children born to impoverished hill farmers outside the small Kerry village of Annascaul on the Dingle Peninsula. Education was rudimentary, and youngsters like Crean were of more value to the family working in the fields than studying mathematics or writing essays. Crean left school with little more than the ability to read and write, a significant fact that would contribute to his later profile.Born into poverty, the son of a tenant farmer, Crean anticipated further hardships but took comfort from the idea that friends who had made this same journey might be there to greet him when he began his training at Devonport on the south coast of England. He was in for a rude awakening. No such welcomes awaited him.