Tom Crean Archives - Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'

RV Tom Crean, a victory for the campaign to honour a great Irish Hero

On this day the Change platform campaign from which we sought for Ireland To Honour Tom Crean, declared a historic victory with the following post: After eleven years of operating a campaign for Ireland to honour Tom Crean, five of which were spent pestering people to sign this petition, today, […]

General RV Tom Crean

Tom Crean Campaign – Declaration of Victory

After 11 years of operating the campaign to honour Tom Crean, here’s an announcement I’ve waited all that time to post: Celebrations can commence and it’s a huge thrill to learn that the scientific vessel that represents the Irish government finally recognising Tom Crean, the RV Tom Crean, will be making […]

RV Tom Crean

6th October, 2022 – RV Tom Crean launch ceremony at …

On 30th August 1916, at the fourth attempt at rescue, the Chilean vessel Yelcho, a tug built in Scotland in 1906 and sold to the Chilean Navy in 1908, sailed her way into the history books after partaking in the final act of a survival tale like no other as […]

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Tom Crean – The Elephant Island rescue and the brave …

When Tom Crean was headhunted Surprisingly absent from the timeline of Tom Crean’s story until I got stuck into my research for Crean’s biography, is a man called Joseph Foster Stackhouse. Born in 1873 to a Quaker family in Kendal, the gateway to England’s Lake District, Stackhouse had been a […]

Endurance Expedition 1914-16 General

Joseph Foster Stackhouse – Shackleton’s rival for Tom Crean’s services

This image you see here is the last known photograph taken of Tom Crean. 84 years ago to this day, the death of Tom Crean, Ireland’s unheralded hero, occurred in County Cork In a sad twist of fate, when his own hour of need arrived, there was no […]

General Retirement and passing

The Death of Tom Crean – 27th July 1938

The need to escape Tom Crean’s is an epic story and its beginnings were born out of a need to better his fortunes at a time when there were no opportunities to do so in his homeland. Like Crean, many young boys took the same route and I want to […]

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The Sad Fate of Tom Crean’s Friend

Why did Tom Crean go to Antarctica? Tom Crean was recruited to the expedition ship RRS Discovery, by Commander Robert Falcon Scott, (before his promotion to Captain), when the ship Tom was serving on, HMS Ringarooma,(a vessel that was part of the Australian Squadron), was moored in Lyttelton, New Zealand. […]

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Tom Crean Explorer – Your Questions Answered

Tom Crean sewing reindeer sleeping bags whilst serving on the Terra Nova Expedition

Using colourised images, this is the incredible story of Tom Crean.

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Tom Crean - From Boy 2nd Class to Hero 1st …

Oral History - Tom Crean - by his friends

One of the sources I used when researching and writing Tom Crean’s biography was the Oral history archive compiled and created by Irish Life and Lore. (1) The importance of these interviews cannot be understated as a number of the interviewees provide a direct link to the past. In the case […]

General Retirement and passing

Oral History – Coming to Shackleton’s Aid

When Tom Crean was in Lockdown - Sydney 1900

Before Tom Crean set out on his first expedition to Antarctica in December 1901, his time in the Navy until he walked up the gangplank of RRS Discovery had been pretty eventful yet its a period in the timeline of his career that has never before been explored. After writing […]

General The Road To Antarctica Tom Crean's Early Years

HMS Ringarooma and a time Tom Crean was in Quarantine

The Gorgeous Gael and the Irish Giant You’d be forgiven, by its title, for expecting this post to be a tale from Irish mythology but no, it isn’t the stuff of Irish legend despite two larger than life characters forming the basis of the story. At the age of 19, […]

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The Gorgeous Gael

Tom Crean sets off on his lifesaving trek across Antarctica

Over a period of 18 hours on the 18th and 19th February 1912, an act of individual heroism, that remains unparalleled in the history of Antarctic exploration, was playing out its final act during Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the most inhospitable place on earth. A lifesaving solo […]

Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913

Tom Crean’s Lifesaving Solo March

A cottage similar to one in which Tom Crean was born

Compiling a picture from the 1901 Census It’s unfortunate for us that Census records for the era closest to Tom Crean’s birth date aren’t available – both the 1881 and 1891 Censuses, which would have included further information on Tom Crean, were destroyed after a decision was made to pulp […]

General Retirement and passing Tom Crean's Early Years

Gortacurraun – Tom Crean’s birthplace

Tom Crean with the Southern Sledge Depot Party 1902

Of all the images of Tom Crean that I’ve posted over the years, the vast majority originate from his last two expeditions, Terra Nova and Endurance. They are the ones we’ve all become most familiar with – images such as that of Tom holding the puppies and the iconic image […]

Discovery Expedition 1901-1904

Tom Crean on Discovery expedition 1901-1904

A story that deserves a fitting end A man his leaders relied on To the men he served under, Tom Crean was a vital cog in the wheel that saw them pioneer exploration of the most inhospitable continent on Earth. It’s a fact that both Shackleton and Scott valued and relied […]

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The Story of Tom Crean deserves a fitting end.

Return of Tom Crean and Endurance survivors

On 8th November 1916, the passenger and refrigerated cargo steamer, Highland Laddie, arrived in Tilbury docks in London. On board was Tom Crean and a number of his Endurance colleagues.. Offered free passage from Buenos Aires by the company’s Nelson Line owners, were eleven men who’d set sail on the […]

Endurance Expedition 1914-16

The return of Tom Crean and Elephant Island survivors.

The sheer magnitude of what Tom Crean achieved is evident when you document what he actually did. He’s not just a national treasure, he’s an international hero. His actions, in coming to the aid of his fellow human beings without a care for the potential danger to himself, is a […]

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The Heroism of Tom Crean

Men from different classes who were a class Irish double act. There’s little doubt that song and humour played a vital part in the historic story of survival that brought about the greatest rescue in Polar history and that Tom Crean and Sir Ernest Shackleton were often centre-stage in providing […]

Discovery Expedition 1901-1904 Endurance Expedition 1914-16 Retirement and passing

Tom Crean and Sir Ernest Shackleton

Tom Crean related newsclippings Probably the most recognisable of newsclippings, this one attributed to Ernest Shackleton, never actually appeared as an advert purportedly reading as follows:“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success” He […]

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Newsclippings that relate to Tom Crean

24-year-old Tom Crean while serving on HMS Ringarooma

Life in the latter part of 19th century Ireland was, for most, merely an existence. With memories of the earlier, devastating famine which robbed the country of many of its inhabitants either, through starvation or emigration, survival was uppermost in the minds of families whose work was to farm the […]

The Road To Antarctica