Tom Crean

Tom Crean (16 July 1877 – 27 July 1938) was an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer from Annascaul, Co. Kerry, who took part in three major expeditions to Antarctica between 1901 and 1916.

Crean served alongside both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and is remembered as one of the most resilient and dependable figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Details

On Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Crean was a member of the crew of the Endurance when the ship was lost to the ice. He later volunteered for the open boat journey to South Georgia alongside Shackleton, and made the final, gruelling overland crossing of the island’s mountainous interior to reach the whaling station at Stromness and bring help for the men left behind.

On an earlier expedition with Scott, Crean had walked over 30 miles alone across the Antarctic ice to save the life of a fellow crew member, an effort for which he was awarded the Albert Medal.

Legacy

Crean returned to Annascaul after his exploring days, where he ran a pub, the South Pole Inn, until his death in 1938. Quiet and unassuming about his own ac