An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor

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RV Tom Crean, commissioned at ceremony in Dingle, expected to put Ireland at forefront of marine science ] Crean and the crew worked tirelessly hauling tons of supplies, hundreds of miles across the ice, in an effort to establish a route of supply depots for the attempt at the Pole. On the return journey from one such excursion, having put in place the “One Ton Depot”, 130 miles from Hut Point, disaster was only narrowly averted. Over the following three years, Crean would repeatedly find himself thrust into international incidents in an era when rebellions and battles for territory were commonplace across the countries and islands in an area that stretched from the Arctic to the Antarctic Circles.

No doctor capable of undertaking the operation was available in the Tralee hospital he attended and so he was transferred, via ambulance, in a 70-mile journey to Cork’s Bon Secours hospital where finally his appendix was removed. Tom Crean continued life in the Navy and in 1906 Scott, whom he had made such an impression upon, invited Tom to serve with him on the Victorious, an invitation he duly accepted. Among the first experiences aboard HMS Ringarooma, the ship to which he was assigned, was a 12-day period of quarantine in Nouméa, New Caledonia. The crew’s enforced isolation was a safety measure brought about to prevent any further outbreaks of the deadly bubonic plague which had caused 103 deaths after first being detected in Sydney during the early months of 1900. From Nouméa, Crean and his shipmates embarked upon a three-month tour of the New Hebrides (modern-day Vanuatu), an archipelago of more than 80 islands, located off the northeast coast of Australia.The James Caird however, did survive the ordeal, and the pitifully fatigued men eventually landed their craft on South Georgia on May 10th. The problem was they had landed on the wrong side of the island, and the salvation of the Norwegian whaling stations was still a boat journey of around 130 miles, from where they were, but the Caird which had lost its rudder during the landing, was unseaworthy. Their mission had now, inadvertently, become a fight for survival as the 28 man crew hauled provisions and 3 lifeboats across Antarctica. In their wake, the Endurance had succumbed to the vice-like grip of the ice and broken, she sank beneath to her icy grave witnessed at a distance by her crew.

It sits there still today, a timeless reminder of the debt of gratitude owed to a man who, on a number of documented occasions, had put the lives of others above his own. 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. Lieutenant Teddy Evans, who by the time of Crean’s death had been promoted to Admiral Mountevans, owed his life to the Kerryman and he never forgot the historic solo march Crean undertook to save his life, expressing a love for the Irish giant.

The Endurance

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. ScottPole87S” by Photograph by Henry R Bowers (d. 1912) – Scott’s Last Expedition Vol 1 Smith, Elder & Co, London 1913. Licensed under PD-US via Wikipedia. He was a modest character, who always seemed unfazed by the enormity of his achievements, but he had returned to Ireland as a man who had served in the British Navy, at a time when the country was in the middle of a battle for independence, from the very nation he had served under. 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. His fledgling years in the British navy had been a baptism of fire and, in February 1900, yet another long-distance assignment awaited as he boarded HMS Diana, bringing him and 450 fellow sailors to Sydney to man the ships of the Australian Station.

He was laid to rest in Ballynacourty cemetery, not far from his Gortacurraun birthplace, in a family tomb he himself had built. The inscription on the side of his tomb read “Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea” and atop of the tomb lay a ceramic bowl of flowers sent by Edward Evans, the man whose life he’d saved some 26 years earlier. It was a firm discipline that Crean maintained for the rest of his life. While today a famous polar explorer might employ a smooth-talking public relations executive to promote his image or generally raise his profile, Crean remained tight-lipped and spoke to no one about his life. In 1927 he opened a pub in Annascaul. Obviously feeling that the passions of the war had cooled by then, he felt able to call it the South Pole Inn. But when visitors dropped in to see the renowned explorer Crean would politely make his excuses and leave. Tom Crean lived in Annascaul until his death in 1938, and all those alive today who remember him share one common memory—that he never spoke about his life as an explorer. Never once did Tom Crean give an interview to a journalist or an author. Even his two surviving daughters were told precious little about his adventures. Crean’s politics Crean prepares for the trek to the South Pole with Captain Scott in 1911. (Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge) In 2015, a Kerry genealogist discovered the birth certificate of Tom Crean within Irish Civil records and this documented 25th February 1877 as being the correct birthdate. However, as the more authentic source of the parish records reveal the baptism of a child nine days earlier to the same parents, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that this child was Tom Crean. Read more here 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.Two of his aunts, Johanna and Margaret, had earlier emigrated and had settled on the east coast of America, but they were over 3,000 miles away from their nephew, so any thoughts of visiting them while on shore leave would be out of the question.

No doctor capable of undertaking the operation was available in the Tralee hospital he attended and so he was transferred, via ambulance, in a 70-mile journey to Cork’s Bon Secour hospital where finally his appendix was removed. The following report of a correspondence sent by an officer of Ringarooma during the mission does not detail how certain tribal customs impacted on the minds of crew members who encountered evidence of them. The mental wellbeing of such witnesses was, in the Victorian era, of little concern. And now their own race for survival also began. They trudged and hauled across 230 miles of the Polar Plateau, then 120 miles down the Beardmore Glacier encountering numerous dangers, and near death experiences, before the final 400 miles, across the Barrier, stood between them and the sanctuary of one the huts. Pulling up near the RRS Discovery in New Zealand in 1901 changed the course of Tom Crean's life. Photograph: Matt Loughrey

Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea” and atop of the tomb lay a ceramic bowl of flowers which arrived via a white Rolls Royce sent by the man whose life he’d saved some 26 years earlier. Evans, who was unable to attend, had arranged by telegraph upon hearing the sad news, for the floral tribute to be sent through Crean’s former Terra Nova colleague, Robert Forde. On this date, and after 5 years of intense research, the most complete biography ever written about Tom Crean was released under the highly reputable publishing house, Irish Academic Press, under its imprint, Merrion Press.