Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer and Kerry Man

Most everyone has heard of Ernest Shackleton and his exploits with his ship, Endurance. In fact, I sat through a leadership training designed by a well paid consultant who worshipped Shackleton’s leadership style, which by all accounts, was a bit autocratic.

Some people have also heard of Captain Robert Scott, a less inspiring leader to be sure, who had the sad misfortune of losing his life, and that of everyone who went with him, in a futile attempt at being first to reach the south pole.

Having been bested by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen who had arrived days before, Scott and his men planted their flag and then, weak from hunger, snow blindness and frostbite, died, one by one.

I learned of this when researching the role of Kathleen Scott, Robert Scott’s wife, for the tragic play, Terra Nova, which enjoyed an artistic and commercially successful run at Artist’s Repertory Theatre back in the late 1980’s.

What most people don’t know, and what I only found out a few days ago here in Ireland, is that Tom Crean, an Kerry man, worked for both Shackleton and Scott, on both the Terra Nova and the Endurance, and was quietly the real hero of every expedition in which he was involved.

Tom Crean was born on a farm in Gurtachrane, in July 1877, in the hills outside of Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. He was one of 10 children and times were hard for his family.

At 15, he borrowed a suit of clothes and enough money to get to what is now called Cobh (the same port the Titanic later sailed from) and ran away from home to enlist in Queen Victoria’s Royal Navy. He lied about his age in order to be accepted.

Tom was stationed in the Pacific on another warship when Captain Robert Scott sailed into New Zealand aboard his ship, Discovery, en route to the South Pole. One of Scott’s sailors had attacked a petty officer so was dismissed immediately. Tom, who was 24 by then and had an excellent reputation, volunteered to fill the vacancy. Scott gladly signed him on.

Discovery was at that time the best funded, best equipped and largest sailing expedition ever sent South. It would be gone for 2 ½ years, out of touch with civilization.
base camp, Antarctica

In 1902, while learning how to survive raging winds, temperatures in the minus 60-80’s, and conditioning on the ice for a push to the pole, Tom Crean was chosen by Scott as one of the few men to accompany him as they tested his newly conceived human pulled sledge across the ice.

In 1910, they returned to the Antarctica on the Terra Nova. This time Scott was determined to “take the pole”, planting the flag for England, and proving his naysayer’s wrong. He wanted Crean with him.

Eight men, including Captain Scott and Tom Crean, marched with the sledge to within 150 miles of the pole itself. At that point, Scott and his men were weakening and weather conditions had strained their already limited food supplies. The sledge was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help and Lieutenant Evans, one of the explorers, was in a very bad way.

Scott ordered Crean, his strongest man, and another, Lashly, to take Evans back to base camp, a distance of 750 miles, where they were to then grab more food and supplies and head back to join Scott He expected to be returning from planting the flag by that time.

Crean and Lashly pulled Evans, who, believing he was dying, ordered them to leave him behind. They refused, pulling him over 100 miles before their strength began to play out. Crean volunteered to go alone, on foot, to Hut Point, 35 miles away, where provisions had been stored. He walked, stumbled, and crawled, with no tent or sleeping bag and only 3 biscuits and 2 slices of chocolate to sustain him, He arrived at Hut Point within 18 hours!

Unknown artist’s rendition

This is after having already marched more than 1500 miles in 3 ½ months by this time. He returned to Evans and Lashly, with supplies, saving them both.

Captain Scott and his remaining four companions meanwhile did reach the pole, only to discover that Amundsen and his party had claimed it a month earlier, then come and gone. Disheartened, starving and exhausted, they died on the return trip before Crean was able to get to them. Scott’s last words, written in his journal to be discovered later were, ‘My God, this is a terrible place.”

Crean’s action has been called the greatest single act of bravery and endurance in the entire history of arctic exploration. For saving Lieutenant Evan’s life,
he and Lashly received the Albert Medal, the highest honor one can receive for gallantry.

Three years later, Crean was recruited by Ernest Shackleton to join the crew of his ship, the Endurance, for its famous hopeful, but failed, attempt to be the first to cross the Antarctic from one side to the other.

Tom Crean was one of the 28 men, including Shackleton, who found themselves barely surviving on drifting ice floes for nearly six months when the ship became stranded in pack ice.

When out of desperation they launched their three small lifeboats to row for survival, it was Stancomb Willis, the lifeboat steered by Tom Crean, which was the first to reach uninhabited Elephant Island and touch land.

Recognizing that a few men could survive on fish and water for a limited time on that remote island, Crean then joined Shackleton and four others to set off in a 22 foot open boat in the hopes of reaching the whaling station, South Georgia. The men made the 800 mile journey in 17 days.

Crean, Shackleton and a third man, Worsley, then had to march across unknown ice terrain and glaciers with no tents or sleeping bags in the hope of reaching Stromness. They managed to do it in an astonishing 36 hours.

It took four more months before they were able to return to the rest of their crew, still on Elephant Island, but they did. Remarkably, not one person died.

However, this was the last expedition for Crean, who turned down Shackleton’s offer to join him in yet another. We will never know the words spoken between the two adventurers but Shackleton was reportedly disappointed by Crean’s decision. Crean chose instead, in 1917, to return to his beloved Ireland, where he met and married a local woman from Anascaul, Eileen Herlihy.

They lived peacefully and happily, had three children together, and in 1927 they opened the South Pole Inn, where they lived until Tom Crean, the world class adventurer and hero, died unexpectedly in 1938 at the young age of 61 due to a burst appendix.

Those who knew him say that Tom was a gentle man, soft spoken, who never talked about his adventures. He just lived his life and enjoyed meeting the strangers who passed through. It wasn’t until his death, when his children, prompted by historians, began to discover the truth about their father and all of the extraordinary things he had done.

Knowing what I had learned about the Terra Nova expedition from my research for a performance in the play all those years ago, I made a point of stopping for lunch in the South Pole.
I became somewhat emotional as I strode around the inn reading the newspaper articles and looking at photos and paintings his family has hung on the walls. However, it is a happy place, full of talkative people and positive energy.

There is a timeline of Crean’s life as an explorer painted on the ceiling. It is an impressive list of accomplishments.

I am happy to report that I was served delicious fresh sea bass in this place created by an extraordinary man. I am happy to share him with you here.