Thomas Crean

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tom Crean with his sled dog puppies Roger, Nell, Toby and Nelson (photographed by Frank Hurley during the Endurance expedition) (1914)

Thomas (Tom) Crean , Irish Tomás Ó Croidheáin (born July 20, 1877 in Annascaul , County Kerry , Ireland , † July 27, 1938 in Cork , County Cork , Ireland) was an Irish polar explorer who participated in three expeditions between 1901 and 1916 of the so-called "Golden Age of Antarctic Research" participated.

Life

From 1901 to 1904 Crean was a member of the Discovery Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott and was appointed by him for the Terra Nova Expedition (1910 to 1913) to conquer the geographic South Pole. However, he did not then belong to the pole conquerors. With 150 miles to go, Scott sent three more people back, namely Crean, William Lashly and Edward "Teddy" Evans , who survived the over 750 mile exhausting march back. Crean completed the last 35 miles alone to get help and was then part of the expedition team that Scott and his people were looking for and ultimately found.

Crean was considered a simple man; without much education, but physically and mentally very strong. Together with Frank Wild and Frank Worsley , he was one of the pillars on the endurance expedition (1914 to 1916) led by Ernest Shackleton . He was a member of the six-man crew who dared the legendary crossing from Elephant Island to South Georgia in the James Caird to rescue the rest of the expedition , and then undertook the forced march from King Haakon Bay to Stromness together with Shackleton and Worsley .

Statue of Tom Crean in Annascaul

He was then to take part in Shackleton's Quest Expedition (1921 to 1922), but renounced and settled in Ireland. He later ran a pub in his birthplace called "The South Pole Inn", which is still there today. He married Eileen ( Nell ) Herlihy in 1917 . The marriage produced three daughters. Katherine died in 1924 at the age of four. Crean died of a ruptured appendix in 1938.

In 2003 a bronze statue of Tom Crean was unveiled in a small park in Annascaul opposite the "South Pole Inn".

After Crean of are Mount Crean in Antarctica and South Georgia in the South Atlantic of Crean Lake and the Crean Glacier named. The Dingle Brewing Company brews a lager under the name Crean's , which is marketed with reference to the polar explorer ( Discover Crean's. A True Irish Hero ).

literature

  • Michael Smith, An Unsung Hero, Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor, The Collins Press, 2009
  • Michael Smith, Tom Crean - An Illustrated Life: Unsung Hero of the Scott & Shackleton Expeditions, The Collins Press, 2011

Web links

Commons : Thomas Crean  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The ice cream man from the second row in FAZ of January 22, 2015, page R4
  2. ↑ Michael Smith, Tom Crean - An Illustrated Life ... , p. 159
personal data
SURNAME Crean, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crean, Tom (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Annascaul , County Kerry , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1938
Place of death Cork , County Cork