Crean's Historic Adventure with Shackleton

• On his return from the Terra Nova expedition, Crean resumed his Naval duties at Chatham, Kent until Shackleton began to recruit for his ‘Endurance Expedition’ to cross the continent of Antarctica

• Crean was selected to be one of the party of 6 to make the crossing

• This expedition, like Scott’s was bound for the South Pole and set out from London on the 1st Aug 1914

• However, unknown to Crean he would not step foot on Antarctica again

• Endurance became trapped in the ice of Weddell Sea in Jan 1915

• It was abandoned in Oct and it sunk in Nov

• The men made the safety of elephant island in April 1916, with Crean being in charge of the Stancomb Willis lifeboat which took them there

• In order to get rescue Crean, Shackleton and four companions began an 800 mile voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia in the largest of the open lifeboats, the James Caird.

• They landed in South Georgia in May of that year

• A Norwegian whaling station was located on one side of the Island but they landed on the uninhabited southern side and with a broken rudder had no way of sailing around.

• They took on the daunting task of crossing South Georgia's frozen mountains to reach the whaling station and safety.

• They succeeded and over four months after they had set out, Crean and Shackleton finally returned to Elephant Island and all 22 castaways from Endurance were rescued.

• In Sept 1917 Crean married his childhood sweetheart Eileen Herlihy at home in Anascaul

• They had 3 children together however 1 died at the age of four

• In 1920, after 27 years of service Crean retired from the Royal Navy

• In 1927 he opened a pub in his home town called the South Pole Inn.

• He lived a quiet life until his death from a burst appendix in 1938