Tom Crean: From Boy 2nd Class to Hero 1st Class

An Ordinary Man with an Extraordinary Story

Born on, or shortly before, 16th February 1877, Tom Crean was the seventh of 11 children (8 boys, 3 girls) born to Patrick and Catherine Crean, a mile or so outside the village of Annascaul in the townland of Gortacurraun on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.

Like many families in 19th-century Ireland under the governance of the British Empire, the Creans lived a hand-to-mouth existence with little prospect of improving. By the time Tom Crean reached his teens, he made a decision to escape the misery and poverty that surrounded him. An argument with his father, after Tom had allowed cattle to stray into a potato field, led to Tom following the example of many boys in the area who had sought an escape route from a bleak future.

Aged almost 16½, in July 1893, Tom Crean joined the British Navy, and throughout a harsh apprenticeship under strict naval protocol, he progressed through the ratings from his initial status of Boy 2nd Class.

Among the significant events hitherto missing from accounts of Crean's life was his first sea-going assignment. At 17 years old and now an Ordinary Seaman, Tom Crean was, in December 1894, bound for the Americas on HMS Wild Swan, a ship deemed by commentators of the time as being "hopelessly obsolete."

A month after the ship's arrival at the port of Valparaiso, Chile, Crean was transferred to the station's flagship HMS Royal Arthur and thrust into an international territorial dispute in danger of escalating into armed conflict. In April 1895, orders were given for Royal Arthur to lead two other vessels into the port of Corinto, Nicaragua, on a mission to collect an indemnity for the maltreatment of British subjects and property.

Re-assigned to Wild Swan in October 1895, Crean would, for the following two and a half years, chalk up thousands of miles patrolling the Americas and the islands of the South Pacific — visiting places previously never associated with his story, such as Hawaii, Tahiti, the Pitcairn Islands, Acapulco, Alaska, San Diego and Seattle.

In December 1901, an opportunity arose that would see him head south to the largely undiscovered continent of Antarctica — the first of three Antarctic expeditions the Kerryman would undertake over the course of his career.

Tom Crean's First Expedition to Antarctica — RRS Discovery

Robert Falcon Scott was a naval commander with big ambitions, and his ship, RRS Discovery, was soon to embark on a mission to explore the last great continent. The desertion of one sailor led directly to the recruitment of another in the shape of Tom Crean — short of a deckhand after a sailor fled the ship, Scott recruited Crean from HMS Ringarooma to join the crew heading south.

For a short period on his first expedition, Tom Crean could revel in the glory of being a member of the sledging team that held the prized "Farthest South" record — a short-lived, month-long accomplishment, surpassed by his captain Scott, along with Dr Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton.

The Fateful Terra Nova Expedition — Crean's Second Journey to Antarctica

The Terra Nova expedition set sail in 1910. It was whilst returning from a journey to establish stores at One Ton Depot that Crean's disregard for his own safety led him to summon help for two colleagues and four expedition horses left stranded on an ice floe — jumping from floe to floe and navigating his way up a frozen cliff face while killer whales circled below.

Of the final eight men who'd reached within 170 miles of the Pole, five would form the party chosen to reach the South Pole itself. Scott chose to disappoint his second-in-command Lieutenant Evans, William Lashly, and a tearful Tom Crean. As Crean waved goodbye to his colleagues, little did he know it would be the last time he would see them alive.

The hero of the piece again happened to be Tom Crean. In a venture described as "one of the unforgettable classics among polar feats," Tom Crean undertook a solo march in worsening conditions to save the life of Lieutenant Teddy Evans, who had contracted scurvy with approximately 100 miles of their 800-mile journey still to trek.

In worsening health, Evans ordered the two men to forge on and leave him to his fate — but they steadfastly refused.

On 18th February 1912, when the men were 35 miles from the safety of the expedition base at Hut Point, Evans's condition worsened to the extent that his carriers believed he wouldn't survive without urgent medical attention. Crean, with just one stick of chocolate and three biscuits for a meagre ration, set off alone to reach Hut Point by the fastest means possible — on foot, without skis.

In 18 hours, after an arduous march in ever-worsening conditions, an exhausted Tom Crean slumped through the door of the expedition hut to alert the expedition doctor, Atkinson. Crean's feat earned him and Lashly, who had stayed behind to nurse Evans, the Albert Medal for their remarkable display of bravery.

Endurance Expedition — The Greatest Rescue in Maritime History

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton recruited Tom Crean for his attempt to become the first to traverse the Antarctic continent overland. Crean stepped aboard Endurance as Second Officer.

The expedition struck trouble when the ship became lodged in thick continental ice. On 21st November 1915, Endurance sank beneath the ice, witnessed from a distance by her crew. Skippering the three lifeboats that followed were Shackleton (The James Caird), Worsley (The Dudley Docker), and Tom Crean, who headed up the smallest and most difficult to navigate, The Stancomb Wills.

For the desperate journey to reach South Georgia, Shackleton chose Tom Crean among his crew of six aboard the James Caird. After a 14-day journey of unimaginable suffering, they reached South Georgia — but on the uninhabited side. The only hope left was to cross the mountainous glaciers of the interior. The task fell to Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean, who set out at 3am on 19th May 1916, by the light of the moon.

On 30th August 1916, the fourth rescue attempt finally broke through the ice to reach the marooned men on Elephant Island. Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton manned the lifeboats launched from the Chilean tug Yelcho, and headed to the beach where their relieved colleagues were waving and cheering from the shore.

Retirement and the Ironic Twist of Fate in His Hour of Need

In September 1917, Crean married a local girl, Ellen Herlihy. His Navy pension allowed him to build a business in licensed premises, which he and his wife operated from a house Crean had purchased in 1916 in his home village of Annascaul.

His retirement from the Navy in 1920 was an enforced one, after being diagnosed with retinitis — eyes that had been subjected to the fiercest blizzards and coldest winds on earth were the cause of his final farewell after a 27-year career, seven of which he'd spent in the Antarctic Circle.

It was perhaps his sick daughter Kate he referred to when declining Shackleton's request that he join a fourth expedition to Antarctica in 1921. Crean refused, stating: "I have a long-haired pal now."

In 1938, Tom Crean passed away at the age of 61. He'd contracted peritonitis after having to travel an additional 70 miles to Cork via ambulance, denied a life-saving appendectomy at the Tralee hospital closest to his home because no doctor capable of performing the operation was on duty when he was admitted.

In a sad twist of irony, in his own hour of need, there was no one to come to the rescue for the lifesaver extraordinaire.

On 31st January 2021, his country granted Tom Crean official recognition, when, after an 11-year campaign, a scientific vessel was named RV Tom Crean.

On Crean's tombstone lies the inscription: "Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea." Perhaps with recognition, his memory has been brought home — but the task ahead is to tell the world of his incredible story.