Tom Crean's granddaughter Aileen to recreate his epic journey
For 80 years the polar medals belonging to Antarctic explorer Tom Crean lay at the back of an old wardrobe at the family home of his granddaughter in Kenmare, Co Kerry. For Aileen Crean O’Brien, 55, the items were very important family possessions but for anyone interested in exploration they were of huge national significance.
The medals were awarded for Crean’s exploits including his part in the heroic rescue of the crew of the James Caird lifeboat which put to sea when the ship the Endeavour became jammed in pack ice on the Antarctic shelf on Ernest Shackleton expedition of 1916. The navigation of that small boat across towering seas to South Georgia 1,500km distant through icy winds is regarded as the greatest-ever feat of navigation. Crean’s subsequent crossing of the unmapped mountains of South Georgia with Shackleton and Frank Worsley to seek help for their shipmates is regarded as one of the greatest feats of mountaineering ever.
