History show- Scotts Antarctic expedition

jonniebgood1

The history show on RTE radio can be a bit hit and miss sometimes. Talking history on newstalk is similar. I thought it might be interesting when these shows are of interest to link them here on the history forum. If people wish they can discuss the topic more or if not at least people who may have missed a good show can listen back to it. I don't get to listen to them all so if others can also recommend them and get discussions going on them it would be appreciated. The topics are quite random and would add variation for us here IMO. This Sunday on RTE they discussed Robert Scott's expedition to the South pole and it was a good show. There were interesting tangents relating to Irish involvement also, most notable being Tom Creans involvement. They briefly describe how Scott did not tell Crean to his face that he was not selected for the final 4 who would push on to the South Pole. Why did he not select Crean?

Creans retirement from these type of expeditions is also interesting. It seemed that he went from antartic explorer to Kerry farmer almost overnight.
Does anyone have any more information on this transformation? Was he affected by the loss of Scott and others on this journey?

The show can be linked to listen to in MP3 (click on the MP3) here

Judgement Day

I caught the show last night and it was a real cracker, if a bit revisionistic. It sent me off on another tangent though as I love beer, the Tralee & Dingle Railway etc. Tom Crean's pub, the "South Pole Inn" at Annascaul, was favoured by train crews operating on the decrepit narrow gauge Tralee & Dingle Railway - only a few hundred yards from the pub - and while engines were watered at Annascaul station, or trains waited to cross other trains, the crews adjourned to the pub.


http://www.chestermodelrailwayclub.com/dingle.htm

The T&D was built on the cheap with horrendous curves and gradients and, indeed, the train crews themselves must have come out of the same mould as Tom Crean!
I think that it was mentioned on the programme last night that a new microbrewery in Dingle has started producing a Tom Crean lager beer - see below. Plenty of associated merchandise for the breweriana collector too - the glasses are a must-have. Sorry for hijacking yet another thread.

jonniebgood1

Good stuff JD. All tangents are welcome. I am hoping that the topics on some of the History show or talking history can lead us into various links such as that railway and Creans beer link! On the show itself I had'nt listened to it much recently and was pleasantly surprised to find it being presented by Diarmaid Ferriter. I think it was Myles Dungan or some other RTE figure when I last checked it (quite a while ago) so Ferriter was a great step up.
Do you know was Tom Crean a farmer as well as publican. The show mentioned how he had later turned down the choice of being part of more expeditions which is interesting.
It would also be interesting to see his families involvement in the war of independence and the civil war. He comes across as a real hero in accounts of expeditions he took part in.

losthorizon

I went to see the Play Tom Crean Antartic Explorer and as far as I know its based on totally factually accounts. The reason Scott didnt pick Crean was apparently because he was ill with a heavy flu/cold according to the play. It still tours every now and again and its well worth seeing.

jonniebgood1

There is a good biographic summary of Crean here

It has some nuggets of detailed information:

On 28 February, following a depot trek to Corner Camp, Scott ordered Crean to accompany Cherry-Garrard and Lieutenant Henry Robertson (‘Birdie’) Bowers in taking four ponies across the sea ice to Hut Point. Although the sea ice had been reported solid, after travelling several miles the party discovered it to be broken and treacherous; so they marched back until the exhausted ponies would go no further. When they camped down for the night, and Bowers finally prepared a hot meal, he mistook a small bag of curry powder for the cocoa bag and made cocoa with that. ‘Crean,’Bowers reported, ‘drank his right down before discovering anything wrong.’(Bowers 1910-13, 2:76-77).

The race against time encouraged risks. Arriving at the Shackleton Icefalls, they decided to take themselves and the sledge over the falls rather than make a three-day march around. As they glissaded down an ice slope at an estimated sixty miles per hour, the sledge suddenly shot over a yawning crevasse. ‘I looked at Crean,’ wrote Evans, ‘ who raised his eyebrows as if to say, “What next?” ‘ A few days later the party used a narrow ice bridge to ease themselves and the sledge over a deep crevasse, a feat Crean later described: ‘We went along the crossbar to the H of hell.’ (Evans 1948: 215, 220).

And his end:

His remaining years were spent in Ireland. Shortly after returning from the Endurance expedition he married Ellen Herlihy of Corcadhuibhne, County Kerry; they settle in Annascaul (Crean’s birthplace), opened a pub named the South Pole Inn, and raised a family. Crean talked ‘…Irish as if he had never been away,’ noted one writer. ‘Despite the hardships he had endured and the wounds they left, he never lost his fine spirit and cheery disposition, and he was a kindly neighbour and a good friend.’ On 27 July 1938 Tom Crean died at the age of sixty-three, ‘smoking his pipe to the last.’ He was buried in Ballinacourty near Annascaul (Barry 1952). Crean’s descendants, two daughters and their families, continue to live in the same area, keeping alive memories of their notable ancestor.

jonniebgood1

The Gaurdian published newly found photos taken by Scott on this expedition recently. Very interesting and me thinks he was a decent photographer also!
20/12/11.


02/12/11. Photo showing expedition before the horses were shot.


Captain Oates, October 1911.

More photos and descriptions of them here