On this day, the culmination of the greatest tale of rescue and survival one could ever imagine, was being played out on the Southern Ocean as the Chilean ship, Yelcho, approached Elephant Island, watched by the 22 men who’d undergone 126 days of unimaginable hardships and deprivation.
Onboard the rescue vessel were Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, the three main protagonists in in this remarkable drama. Their resilience, determination and tenacity had seen the three overcome almost impossible odds to arrive where they were now at as they counted the crew members on the Elephant Island beach, named Cape Wild after Frank Wild, Shackleton’s deputy and the man left in charge of the stranded shore party.
Incredibly, not one man had been lost and Shackleton and Tom Crean took to the lifeboats to bring the relieved party aboard the Yelcho.
As they steamed into the Chilean port of Punta Arenas, a fanfare of crowds cheering and brass bands playing were among the largest ever witnessed to mark the return of the heroes approaching port.
They were there to cheer on heroes, every last man of them, including the captain of the Yelcho, Pilot Pardo, who to this day is feted and celebrated as a National Hero in Chile. Luis Pardo was later offered a reward by the British Government, reputed to be £25,000, a huge amount for the time it was in, yet the reluctant hero declined it stating “I was only doing my job”
Central to this, the greatest survival story in history were the names Shackleton, Worsley and Tom Crean, the Kerryman who had, on two previous occasions, been a primary player in saving the lives of expedition colleagues whilst serving in Antarctica, most notably his historic 36 mile lifesaving, solo walk for which he’d received the Albert Medal for bravery.
To read Tom Crean’s full story, the book, published by Merrion Press in May 2023, can be purchased at all good bookstores and is widely available online. The following page provides further details and links to booksellers who offer the biography. You will also find links to purchase the biography Tom The Mighty Explorer, written for children aged 6-10 years-old.
Biography of Tom Crean – Crean – The Extraordinary Life of an Irish Hero
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