Tom Crean: Unsung Hero of the Scott and Shackleton Antarctic Expeditions

Rating:
Summary: A 4.5 STAR RATING
Review: A captivating read and even more than a book about Tom Crean.
Michael Smith assembles a intriguing chronology that reveals
a compelling perspective of the times and lives of the Polar
Explorers. An insightful character analysis into the leadership and the crews.
My only complaint is,after Smith's meticulous documentation of names,dates,latitude/longitude, and geographic locations,
the book offers only a few rudimentary maps. But you can easily remedy this(inconceivable oversight)by obtaining the USGS Topographic Index Map of Antartica(free)and a beautiful Satellite Image Map($7 US)scale 1:5,000,000 mapI-2560.I plotted as I read and ended up with a great reference souvenir.

Rating:
Summary: Great Buy
Review: An excellent account of the life and achievements of Tom Crean, a veteran of three Antartic expeditions, including the ill fated Scott expedition and the Endurance expedition. Good narrative and some beautiful photos combine to make this biography an excellent and fascinating read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Long Overdue Biography
Review: Any reader of the many books written on the Heroic Age of Polar explorations will very much enjoy this well presented biographical history of a tough Irishman who accompanied Shackleton on two Antarctic voyages (including the ill fated
Endurance trip) and Scott on the ill fated trek to the South Pole.
Wonderfully presented, this book was fascinating to read and will be most treasured in my collection of polar exploration books. Do not hesitate to select this book if you enjoy nonfiction adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, the rest of the story
Review: Having read about Amundsun,Scott and Shackleton,this entry on Crean[and the Biography on Worsley],complete the elusive details on a host of characters who chose to go where no others had gone before. Isolated and at the unrelenting mercy of the elements,these thoroughly detailed accounts evoke the best of the human spirit.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Hero
Review: I've read almost every book I can find on Antarctic exploration and without a doubt, this is one of the finest. Tom Crean is always mentioned in books about early Antarctic epics but we've never really got to know him and what kind of a man he was. Michael Smith has done a fine job in tracing Crean's life from his early days in the Navy, his subsequent trips with Scott and Shackleton right up to his final days as a Pub owner is his home in Ireland. This is the kind of man you'd want whatever your expedition might be. He was brave, strong, honest, trustworthy and humorus, no matter what the circumstances. A great story about a real hero!

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Tom Crean survived several famous Antarctic adventures of the Edwardian Era, and yet is hardly mentioned in most of the popular Antarctic Exploration books. Michael Smith does a fantastic job telling Crean's personal history with humor and understanding, while giving insight into the expeditions, the explorers and Antarctic History as a whole. This is a must-have for polar enthusasts (or shall we say, PolarGeeks?).

Rating:
Summary: Not much new here folks
Review: Tom Crean's life deserves to be told, but may never get fleshed out fully. There is just not enough material available for a good in-depth biography. Crean wrote few letters and left no interviews or diaries for a biographer to use. He was mostly uneducated in the sense of a few years of schooling. The author of this book has admitted in a past interview that due to these limitations, as well as until recently the forgotten Shackleton & Endurance saga, Crean didn't warrant a biography! The information about Crean and his polar experiences with Scott & Shackleton have been covered before in many books. A few years after the Endurance expedition ended in 1917, Crean retired from the seas, got married, and opened a pub in Ireland, the South Pole Inn. He apparently never spoke much of his polar days. I was mildly disappointed with this book, expecting more than I received. It's worth a read- the story of that heroic age of polar exploration is amazing and absorbing no matter how many times you read it, and you are left with much respect for Crean and his fellow explorers who lived through such incredible experiences.