An Unsung Hero

Smith, Michael. An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Arctic Survivor New York : Gill Books, 2000. Print.

First Sentences:

Thomas Crean was born on 20 July 1877 at Gurtachrane, a remote farming area a short distance to the west of the village of Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula, in Ireland's County Kerry....The Contrast with the hostile, frozen Antarctic Continent where Crean would carve a remarkable career could hardly be more stark.

Description:

I've always been drawn to non-fiction memoirs, biographies, and re-tellings of explorations, adventures, resourcefulness, and survival under difficult conditions. How do these people overcome the obstacles they face daily? Where do they get the strength and will to press on? Sometimes I even wonder how I would have fared should I have been alongside these brave people (No question here, I would have done poorly and given up at a very early stage).

 

Thomas Crean is not a man who gave up. While his name is not familiar to most of us, I was given his biography by friends who visited a museum in Ireland dedicated to his exploits. He was a survivor, a conqueror of more than a few death-defying situations, and someone truly respected by the great Arctic explorers of his time, enough so that they requested him accompany them on several dangerous expeditions to that unknown world.

 

Thomas Crean was a shipmate with Ernest Shackleton on Robert Falcon Scott's ambitious  voyage to explore for the first time Antarctica, an "unknown and hostile territory." This was to be a hugely dangerous but prestigious and widely popular undertaking.

The Discovery expedition to one of the world's last unconquered spots had aroused huge interest in the English-speaking world. It was regarded by many as something of a virility symbol for Britain at a time when the Victorian age had finally drawn to a close, and the Empire was under severe strain in places like South Africa and Ireland.

Thomas Crean, an Irish seaman assigned to another ship helping to outfit Scott's Discovery for the expedition, was chosen to replace a discharged Discovery crew member at the last minute and thus gained a spot on the voyage and an introduction to the Antarctic. Although Crean proved popular with mates and officers alike, it was Scott himself who doomed the voyage.

[Scott] determined that the expedition would use traditional British methods of traveling, which meant man-hauling sledges across the ice, rather than the more suitable dogs and skis. Dogs were quicker, hard working and at worst, could be eaten by the other dogs or the explorers themselves.

Once in Antarctica, instead of dropping off a small group of men to explore and map local areas while the Discovery wintered safely in New Zealand, Scott chose that everyone would spend the winter safely iced up in -40 degree weather for nine months to await the "warmer" season when exploration was possible. Thus Crean and his shipmates were introduced to the cold, inhospitable land, making forays over the ice on day trips, hauling massive sleds with supplies by their own strength after their Siberian horses proved unable to walk, much less pull sleds over broken ice fields. The horses quickly died and were eaten.

Man-haulers during this era were plagued by the intense, cold, frostbite, blizzards, hurricane-force winds, snow blindness, life-threatening-crevasses and one final indignity -- they were always thirsty and hungry....The British...took special pride in the ability to cope with hardship, the test of real men pitted against the worst the elements could throw at them. ...They gloried in the hardship and seemed unable or unwilling to adapt to more modern, less arduous methods of travel, such as dogs and skis.

Crean became one of the best of these man-haulers, never weakening in his responsibility to not let his piece of harness go slack, and encouraged other haulers to keep them going and alive. They covered an average of only 6-12 back-breaking miles a day. Roland Amundsen, a rival explorer also trying to be the first to reach the South Pole at the same time, was familiar with travel on ice. He studied the natives in Norway and, using their proven methods with dogs and skis, and was able to cover 60 miles a day without men hauling the sleds. Guess which man made it to the Pole first and which one died on the cross-continent trip back?

Crean survived this ill-fated voyage and undertook two other Arctic trips with Ernest Shackelton, including the famous disastrous trip where Shackelton, Crean and crew were so badly iced in that their ship, the Endurance, broke up into pieces. Some of the men, including Crean, were forced to haul boats miles over the ice to the open sea and then try to row hundreds of miles without instruments to seek help for the men left behind.

Crean also, when a fellow crewmate was disabled on an multi-day exploratory trek, volunteered to go get help by jumping on floating ice floes to work his way back to their base camp. He even survived falling into a deep crevasse, using only his physical strength and willpower, an incredible feat.

Adventure after hair-raising encounter with challenges, death and despair fill the pages of An Unsung Hero, forcing readers to marvel at Crean's perseverance, strength, and positive attitude. It's a detailed examination of the outdated British methods of exploration and unqualified leaders and crew, life of men stuck on a ship for months of sunless cold, as well as the personal triumphs for those who flourished when facing hardships.

It's a page-turner of a story of an extraordinary man and his survival in the last glorious age of exploration where the world breathlessly followed the progress of brave men, hailed their triumphs, and mourned their defeats. And Tom Crean was in the middle of it all, and survived to tell of these exploits and the men who endured them. Highly recommended, of course.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Classic, minutely-detailed, and gripping account of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated adventure to cross the Antarctic. One of his most trusted crew members was Thomas Crean, chronicled in the above book.

 Happy reading.

Fred

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