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Tom Crean: An Illustrated Life: Unsung Hero of the Scott and Shackleton Expeditions by Michael Smith
alba_marie's review against another edition
5.0
"We went along the crossbar to the 'H' of 'Hell.'" - Tom Crean
Well I have a new favourite person. And I've even been to his pub! Tom Crean is a now-famous Antarctic explorer from Ireland (Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula to be exact), but before Michael Smith's iconic book came out 20 years ago, Tom Crean had been forgotten to the annals of history.
Crean went to Antarctica 3 times, twice with Scott and once with Shackleton during the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, the last great unknown wild space on Earth. There are glaciers and mountains named after the man, and dozens of people lived long lives directly or indirectly because of him and his heroic efforts.
He wrote nothing down, and was curiously reticent to talk about his experiences upon return - largely because he went South with the British Navy when Ireland was under the Union Jack, and returned to an Ireland in turmoil during the early Troubles. So in many ways, An Unsung Hero is less a memoir about Tom, and more a detailed analysis of the explorations and actions that the man was part of.
Tom Crean was a pretty cool guy and he put up with a lot. Scurvy, frostbite, months-long isolation, freezing temperatures, death of friends and colleagues, 18 hour-long-days man-hauling sledges, classism and poor leadership (ahem Scott ahem), cut off from civilisation for years on end, stranded on an ice flow for months, crossing the Antarctic seas in 20-foot lifeboat... this was his life for years and years. And he remained cheerful, steady, reliable, and generally unperturbed.
This is the guy that climbed a huge ice wall using a ski as an icepick to alert the others of his 2 colleagues' plight, the guy that walked 35 miles in 18 hours without food or skies to save his friends' life, the man who crossed the Ross Sea in an open-topped toy boat in the dead of winter to search for elusive whalers to rescue 20 stranded men, the guy who made the first traverse of South Georgia Island and his huge mountains and glaciers to find help - not to mention all of the normal stuff he did, all of the awful conditions he put up with. In the name of glory, exploration and adventure.
He didn't win any of the fame, and only received a few thousand pounds for his trouble. It took 100 years for anyone to know his name and his heroics while men like Scott and Shackleton get all the fame - despite the fact that these men made terrible, preventable mistakes in the name of their own ambition and pride (mostly Scott though, let's be honest).
This book was really interesting and anyone interested in exploration, survival, extreme conditions and learning about the so-called lackeys who did all the work for little reward should read this book. Plus - go Ireland!
Also, did you know they finally found Shackleton's boat, Endurance? Yep, it was found in early 2022 (what inspired me to finally read the book), and it's in perfect shape at the bottom of the freezing Ross Sea.
Well I have a new favourite person. And I've even been to his pub! Tom Crean is a now-famous Antarctic explorer from Ireland (Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula to be exact), but before Michael Smith's iconic book came out 20 years ago, Tom Crean had been forgotten to the annals of history.
Crean went to Antarctica 3 times, twice with Scott and once with Shackleton during the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, the last great unknown wild space on Earth. There are glaciers and mountains named after the man, and dozens of people lived long lives directly or indirectly because of him and his heroic efforts.
He wrote nothing down, and was curiously reticent to talk about his experiences upon return - largely because he went South with the British Navy when Ireland was under the Union Jack, and returned to an Ireland in turmoil during the early Troubles. So in many ways, An Unsung Hero is less a memoir about Tom, and more a detailed analysis of the explorations and actions that the man was part of.
Tom Crean was a pretty cool guy and he put up with a lot. Scurvy, frostbite, months-long isolation, freezing temperatures, death of friends and colleagues, 18 hour-long-days man-hauling sledges, classism and poor leadership (ahem Scott ahem), cut off from civilisation for years on end, stranded on an ice flow for months, crossing the Antarctic seas in 20-foot lifeboat... this was his life for years and years. And he remained cheerful, steady, reliable, and generally unperturbed.
This is the guy that climbed a huge ice wall using a ski as an icepick to alert the others of his 2 colleagues' plight, the guy that walked 35 miles in 18 hours without food or skies to save his friends' life, the man who crossed the Ross Sea in an open-topped toy boat in the dead of winter to search for elusive whalers to rescue 20 stranded men, the guy who made the first traverse of South Georgia Island and his huge mountains and glaciers to find help - not to mention all of the normal stuff he did, all of the awful conditions he put up with. In the name of glory, exploration and adventure.
He didn't win any of the fame, and only received a few thousand pounds for his trouble. It took 100 years for anyone to know his name and his heroics while men like Scott and Shackleton get all the fame - despite the fact that these men made terrible, preventable mistakes in the name of their own ambition and pride (mostly Scott though, let's be honest).
This book was really interesting and anyone interested in exploration, survival, extreme conditions and learning about the so-called lackeys who did all the work for little reward should read this book. Plus - go Ireland!
Also, did you know they finally found Shackleton's boat, Endurance? Yep, it was found in early 2022 (what inspired me to finally read the book), and it's in perfect shape at the bottom of the freezing Ross Sea.
kerry_reader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
4.0