Tom Crean (explorer)
Tom Crean | |
---|---|
Endurance Expedition, February 1915 | |
Native name | Tomás Ó Cuirín (or Ó Croidheáin)[1] |
Birth name | Thomas Crean |
Born | Gurtuchrane, Annascaul, County Kerry, Ireland | 16 February 1877
Died | 27 July 1938 Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, Ireland | (aged 61)
Buried | Ballynacourty, Annascaul, County Kerry, Ireland |
Allegiance | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Service/ | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1893–1920 |
Awards |
|
Spouse(s) | Eileen Herlihy |
Children | 3 |
Signature |
Thomas Crean (Irish: Tomás Ó Cuirín; c. 16 February 1877[2] – 27 July 1938) was an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer who was awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving (AM).
Crean was a member of three major expeditions to Antarctica during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott's 1911–1913 Terra Nova Expedition. This saw the race to reach the South Pole lost to Roald Amundsen and ended in the deaths of Scott and his party. During the expedition, Crean's 35-statute-mile (56 km) solo walk across the Ross Ice Shelf to save the life of Edward Evans led to him receiving the Albert Medal.
Crean left the family farm near
After his experience on the
After retiring from the navy on health grounds in 1920, Crean ran his pub the South Pole Inn in County Kerry with his wife and daughters. He died in 1938.
Early life and career
Crean was born around 16 February 1877[2] in the farming area of Gurtuchrane near the village of Annascaul on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, to Patrick and Catherine (née Courtney) Crean. One of 11 siblings with 7 brothers and 3 sisters. He attended the local Catholic school (at nearby Brackluin), leaving at the age of 12 to help on the family farm. Many sources, including Smith, give Crean's date of birth as 20 July 1877,[3] but more recent scholarship demonstrates this is unlikely given parish records.[2]
At the age of 16, he enlisted in the
Crean's initial naval apprenticeship was aboard the training ship
Discovery Expedition and aftermath, 1901–1910
Discovery sailed to the Antarctic on 21 December 1901, and seven weeks later, on 8 February 1902, arrived in McMurdo Sound, where she anchored at a spot which was later designated "Hut Point".[11] Here the men established the base from which they would launch scientific and exploratory sledging journeys. Crean proved to be one of the most efficient man-haulers in the party; over the expedition as a whole, only seven of the 48-member party logged more time in harness than Crean's 149 days.[12] Crean had a good sense of humour and was well liked by his companions. Scott's second-in-command, Albert Armitage, wrote in his book Two Years in the Antarctic that "Crean was an Irishman with a fund of wit and an even temper which nothing disturbed."[13]
Crean accompanied Lieutenant
During the Antarctic winter of 1902 Discovery became locked in the ice. Efforts to free her during the summer of 1902–03 failed, and although some of the expedition's members (including Ernest Shackleton) left in a relief ship, Crean and the majority of the party remained in the Antarctic until the ship was finally freed in February 1904.[16] After returning to regular naval duty, Crean was promoted to petty officer, first class, on Scott's recommendation.[6][17]
Crean came back to regular duty at the naval base at Chatham, Kent, serving first in Pembroke in 1904 and later transferring to the torpedo school on Vernon. Crean had caught Captain Scott's attention with his attitude and work ethic on the Discovery Expedition, and in 1906 Scott requested that Crean join him on Victorious.[6][18] Over the next few years, Crean followed Scott successively to Albemarle, Essex and Bulwark.[6][18] By 1907, Scott was planning his second expedition to the Antarctic. Meanwhile, Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition, 1907–09, despite reaching a new furthest south record of 88°23'S, had failed to reach the South Pole.[19] Scott was with Crean when the news of Shackleton's near miss became public; it is recorded that Scott observed to Crean: "I think we'd better have a shot next."[20]
Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–1913
Scott held Crean in high regard,
Crean departed with Scott in November 1911, for the attempt at the
One of Crean's biographers, Michael Smith, suggests that Crean would have been a better choice for the polar party than Edgar Evans, who was weakened by a recent hand injury (of which Scott was unaware). Crean, considered one of the toughest men in the expedition, had led a pony across the Barrier and had thus been saved much of the hard labour of man-hauling.
Soon after heading north on the 700-statute-mile (1,100 km) journey back to base camp, Crean's party lost the trail back to the Beardmore Glacier, and were faced with a long detour around a large icefall.[28] With food supplies short, and needing to reach their next supply depot, the group made the decision to slide on their sledge, uncontrolled, down the icefall. The three men slid 2,000 feet (600 m),[29] dodging crevasses up to 200 feet (61 m) wide, and ending their descent by overturning on an ice ridge.[30] Evans later wrote: "How we ever escaped entirely uninjured is beyond me to explain".[29]
The gamble at the icefall succeeded, and the men reached their depot two days later.
When the party was finally free of the glacier and on the level surface of the Barrier, Evans began to display the first symptoms of scurvy.[33] By early February he was in great pain, his joints were swollen and discoloured, and he was passing blood. Through the efforts of Crean and Lashly the group struggled towards One Ton Depot, which they reached on 11 February. At this point Evans collapsed; Crean thought he had died and, according to Evans's account, "his hot tears fell on my face".[32]
With over 100 statute miles (160 km) still to travel before the relative safety of Hut Point, Crean and Lashly began hauling Evans on the sledge, "eking out his life with the last few drops of brandy that they still had with them".[33] On 18 February they arrived at Corner Camp, still 35 statute miles (56 km) from Hut Point, with only one or two days' food rations left and still four or five days' man-hauling to do. They then decided that Crean should go on alone, to fetch help. With only a little chocolate and three biscuits to sustain him, without a tent or survival equipment,[34] Crean walked the distance to Hut Point in 18 hours, arriving in a state of collapse to find Atkinson there, with the dog driver Dmtri Gerov.[33][35] Crean reached safety just ahead of a fierce blizzard, which probably would have killed him, and which delayed the rescue party by a day and a half.[32] Atkinson led a successful rescue, and Lashly and Evans were both brought to base camp alive. Crean modestly played down the significance of his feat of endurance. In a rare written account, he wrote in a letter: "So it fell to my lot to do the 30 miles for help, and only a couple of biscuits and a stick of chocolate to do it. Well, sir, I was very weak when I reached the hut."[36]
Scott's party failed to return. The winter of 1912 at Cape Evans was a sombre one, with the knowledge that the polar party had undoubtedly perished. Frank Debenham wrote that "in the winter it was once again Crean who was the mainstay for cheerfulness in the now depleted mess deck part of the hut."[37] In November 1912, Crean was one of the 11-man search party that found the remains of the polar party. On 12 November they spotted a cairn of snow, which proved to be a tent against which the drift had piled up. It contained the bodies of Scott, Wilson, and Bowers.[38] Crean later wrote, referring to Scott in understated fashion, that he had "lost a good friend".[39]
On 12 February 1913 Crean and the remaining crew of the
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Endurance Expedition), 1914–1917
In October 1913, a close friend of Captain Scott, Joseph Foster Stackhouse, announced plans for a British Antarctic Expedition to explore the uncharted coastlines between King Edward VII Land and Graham Land. The expedition was due to depart England in August 1914 aboard RRS Discovery, the ship of Crean's first mission to Antarctica. In February 1914, Stackhouse confirmed that Crean was to join the expedition as Boatswain, however, in April 1914, Stackhouse's plans were postponed. This left Shackleton free to recruit Crean to his expedition which was also scheduled to depart in August 1914.[2]
Shackleton knew Crean well from the Discovery Expedition, and also knew of his exploits on Scott's last expedition. Like Scott, Shackleton trusted Crean:
On 19 January 1915 the expedition's ship, the Endurance, was beset in the Weddell Sea pack ice. In the early efforts to free her, Crean narrowly escaped being crushed by a sudden movement in the ice.[48] The ship drifted in the ice for months, eventually sinking on 21 November. Shackleton informed the men that they would drag the food, gear, and three lifeboats across the pack ice, to Snow Hill or Robertson Island, 200 statute miles (320 km) away. Because of uneven ice conditions, pressure ridges, and the danger of ice breakup which could separate the men, they soon abandoned this plan: the men pitched camp and decided to wait. They hoped that the clockwise drift of the pack would carry them 400 statute miles (640 km) to Paulet Island where they knew there was a hut with emergency supplies.[49] But the pack ice held firm as it carried the men well past Paulet Island, and did not break up until 9 April. The crew then had to sail and row the three ill-equipped lifeboats through the pack ice to Elephant Island, a trip which lasted five days. Crean and Hubert Hudson, the navigating officer of the Endurance, piloted their lifeboat with Crean effectively in charge as Hudson appeared to have suffered a breakdown.[50][51]
Upon reaching Elephant Island, Crean was one of the "four fittest men" detailed by Shackleton to find a safe camping-ground.
The 800-nautical-mile (1,500 km) boat journey to South Georgia, described by polar historian Caroline Alexander as one of the most extraordinary feats of seamanship and navigation in recorded history, took 17 days through gales and snow squalls, in seas which the navigator, Frank Worsley, described as a "mountainous westerly swell".[54][55] After setting off on 24 April 1916 with just the barest navigational equipment, they reached South Georgia on 10 May 1916. Shackleton, in his later account of the journey, recalled Crean's tuneless singing at the tiller: "He always sang when he was steering, and nobody ever discovered what the song was ... but somehow it was cheerful".[56]
The party made its South Georgia landfall on the uninhabited southern coast, having decided that the risk of aiming directly for the whaling stations on the north side was too great; if they missed the island to the north they would be swept out into the Atlantic Ocean.[57] The original plan was to work the James Caird around the coast, but the boat's rudder had broken off after their initial landing, and some of the party were, in Shackleton's view, unfit for further travel. The three fittest men—Shackleton, Crean, and Worsley—were decided to trek 30 statute miles (48 km) across the island's glaciated surface, in a hazardous 36-hour journey to the nearest manned whaling station.[58]
This trek was the first recorded crossing of the mountainous island, completed without tents, sleeping bags, or map—their only mountaineering equipment was a carpenter's
Later life
After returning to Britain in November 1916, Crean resumed naval duties. On 27 December 1916 he was promoted to the warrant rank of acting boatswain (confirmed in 1918) in recognition of his service on the Endurance,[6][62][63] and was awarded his third Polar Medal. A month later, in April, he was granted a licence for the sale and consumption of alcohol from his dwelling house, a premises he had purchased in 1916. The business was left in the care of family while he served out his time in the Royal Navy.[2]
On 5 September 1917, Crean married Eileen Herlihy of Annascaul. In early 1920, Shackleton was organising another Antarctic expedition, later to be known as the
Throughout his life, Crean remained an extremely modest man. When he returned to Kerry, he put all of his medals away and never again spoke about his experiences in the Antarctic. There is no reliable evidence of Crean giving any interviews to the press.[69] Smith speculates that this may have been because Kerry was a hotbed of Irish nationalism and later Irish republicanism, and, along with County Cork, a centre of violence.[69] The Crean family were once subject to a Black and Tan raid during the Irish War of Independence. Their inn was ransacked until the raiders happened across Crean's framed photo in Royal Navy dress uniform and medals. They then left his inn.[70] On 13 April 1920, Tom Crean was present among crowds gathered in Tralee to protest against the treatment of republican prisoners who had gone on a hunger strike in Mountjoy jail.[2]
Crean's older brother was Cornelius Crean, a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).[71] Cornelius was based in County Cork, where he served with the RIC during the War of Independence.[71] Sgt. Crean was killed during an IRA ambush near Upton on 25 April 1920.[71]
In 1938, Crean became ill with a burst appendix. He was taken to the nearest hospital in Tralee, but as no surgeon was available, he was transferred to the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, where his appendix was removed.[72] Because the operation had been delayed, an infection developed, and after a week in the hospital he died on 27 July 1938. He was buried in his family's tomb at the cemetery in Ballynacourty, Annascaul, County Kerry.[73]
Legacy
Geological features named after the explorer include Mount Crean, a 8,630-foot (2,630 m) peak in Victoria Land, Antarctica[74] and 2,300-foot (700 m) Mount Crean in Greenland,[75] and two places on South Georgia, Crean Glacier and Crean Lake[76][77][78] He was portrayed in the 1985 television series The Last Place on Earth by Daragh O'Malley,[79] and by Aidan Dooley in the one-man play, Tom Crean – Antarctic Explorer.[80] In July 2003, a bronze statue of Crean was unveiled across from his pub in Annascaul. It depicts him leaning against a crate whilst holding a pair of hiking poles in one hand and two sled dog pups in the other.[81] In February 2021 it was announced that a new research vessel being commissioned by the Irish government's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine would be named RV Tom Crean.[82]
Notes
- ^ Smith 2010, chapter 1: "In Irish his name is written as Tomás ó Croidheáin or Ó Cuirín".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Murphy, David. "Crean, Thomas ("Tom")". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Royal Irish Academy. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
- ^ Smith, p. 16
- ^ Smith, p. 18
- ^ Smith, p. 19
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Registers of Seamen's Services—Image details—Crean, Thomas (until promotion to warrant officer)" (paywall). DocumentsOnline. The National Archives. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- ^ "Crean, Thomas". The National Archives. 1893. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
- ^ Smith, pp. 20–21
- ^ Smith, p. 29
- ^ Smith, p. 31
- ^ The name "Hut Point" was given to mark the location, alongside the ship's anchorage, of the expedition's main storage hut, which was used in later expeditions as a shelter and storage depot. Crane, p. 157
- ^ Smith, pp. 46–47
- ^ Smith, p. 46
- ^ Smith, p. 55
- ^ Crane, pp. 214–15. Modern re-calculations based on photographs have placed this furthest south at 82°11'S (Crane map, p. 215).
- ^ Preston, pp. 67–69
- ^ a b Smith, p. 70
- ^ a b Crean, Royal Navy service record, referenced in Smith, p. 72
- ^ Crane, pp. 394–95
- ^ Preston, p. 101
- ^ Huxley, p. 434
- ^ Cherry-Garrard, p. 107
- ^ Cherry-Garrard, p. 147
- ^ Smith, p. 102
- ^ Smith, p. 161
- ^ Huntford (The Last Place on Earth), p. 455
- ^ Scott, Diary, 4 January 1912, reprinted in Smith, p. 123
- ^ Smith, p. 127
- ^ a b Smith, p. 129
- ^ a b Lashly's diary, quoted in Cherry-Garrard, p. 402
- ^ Lashly diary, quoted in Preston, p. 207
- ^ a b c Preston, pp. 206–08
- ^ a b c Crane, pp. 555–56
- ^ Cherry-Garrard, p. 420
- ^ Smith, p. 140
- ^ Crean, letter to unknown person, 26 February 1912, reprinted in Smith, p. 143
- ^ Smith, p. 168
- ^ Crane, pp. 569–70. Oates and Edgar Evans has perished earlier on the return journey.
- ^ Crean letter to J. Kennedy, January 1913, SPRI, reprinted in Smith, p. 172
- ^ Smith, p. 180
- ^ "No. 28740". The London Gazette. 25 July 1913. pp. 5322–5323.
- ^ Smith, p. 183
- ^ Huntford: Shackleton, p. 477
- ^ Alexander, p. 21
- ^ Smith, p. 190
- ^ Shackleton, pp. 44–45
- ^ Alexander, pp. 29–31
- ^ Shackleton, p. 31
- ^ Alexander, p. 98
- ^ a b Alexander, p. 127
- ^ Smith, p. 226
- ^ Shackleton, p. 147
- ^ Shackleton, p. 158
- ^ Worsley, p. 142
- ^ Alexander, p. 153
- ^ Shackleton, p. 174
- ^ Alexander, p. 150
- ^ Alexander, p. 156
- ^ Worsley, pp. 190–91
- ^ Worsley, p. 213
- ^ Worsley, p. 220
- ^ Admiralty Certificate of Qualification for Warrant Officer, 17 August 1917, referenced in Smith, p. 300
- ^ a b "RN Officer's Service Records—Image details—Crean, Thomas (from promotion to Warrant Officer)" (fee usually required to view full pdf of service record). DocumentsOnline. The National Archives. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
- ^ Smith, p. 308
- ^ Smith, p. 304
- ^ Smith, p. 309
- ^ Smith, p. 306
- ^ "Irish Genealogy" (PDF). civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
- ^ a b Smith, p. 312
- ^ Interview with his daughter, Mary O'Brien "RTÉ – Charlie Bird on the trail of Tom Crean"
- ^ a b c Frank McNally, 'An Irishman's Diary', The Irish Times, p. 17. Dublin, Saturday, 23 April 2016.
- ^ "Celebrating Tom Crean, a true hero". Irish Examiner. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
- ^ "We haven't forgotten Tom Crean in Annascaul". Irish Examiner. 12 July 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
- ^ "Cambridge University: Scott Polar Research Institute". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Lorna Siggins (11 April 2011). "'Mount Crean' named among Greenland peaks". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Smith, p. 318
- ISBN 978-0-691-23442-7.
- ^ "New map of South Georgia unveiled". British Antarctic Survey. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ John J. O'Connor (20 October 1985). "TV view: 'The Last Place on Earth' - Not just about the Antarctic". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Kennedy, Maev (16 October 2001). "Irish village hears tales of its forgotten polar hero". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ "Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer" (blog). annascaul-village.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Mac an tSíthigh, Seán (1 February 2021). "New research vessel named after explorer Tom Crean". www.rte.ie. RTE. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
References
- ISBN 0-375-40403-1.
- ISBN 0-7867-0437-3.
- ISBN 0-00-715068-7.
- ISBN 0-689-11429-X.
- Huntford, Roland (1985). The Last Place on Earth. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-28816-4.
- Huxley, Leonard, ed. (1913). Scott's Last Expedition. Vol. I. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Preston, Diana (1999). A First Rate Tragedy. London: Constable & Co. ISBN 0-09-479530-4.
- ISBN 0-7126-0111-2.
- Smith, Michael (2000). An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor. London: Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0-7472-5357-9.
- Smith, Michael (2010). An Unsung Hero. Collins Press. ISBN 9781848890534.
- ISBN 0-7126-6574-9.
Further reading
- Fiennes, Ranulph (2022). Shackleton: The Biography. Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1-64313-879-4.
- Foley, Tim (2020). Crean: The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero. ISBN 978-1999918996.
- Lansing, Alfred (2014) [1959]. ISBN 9780465058785.
- Smith, Michael (2010). Great Endeavour – Ireland's Antarctic Explorers. The Collins Press. ISBN 978-1848890237.
External links
- "Crean and Shackleton Antarctic Commemorative Coins Issued by Ireland" Accessed 9 October 2008.