Tom Crean (1877-1938) was a member of three Antarctic expeditions. He joined Robert Scott’s Discovery Expedition of 1901-04. After Terra Nova his third and final expedition was as second officer on Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition.
After the ship Endurance became beset in the pack ice and sank, Crean and the ship’s company spent 492 days drifting on the ice before a journey in boats to Elephant Island.
He was a member of the crew which made a small boat journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia to seek aid.
Retiring from the Royal Navy in 1920,Tom Crean settled back in Annascaul, Co Kerry where he and his wife Ellen opened and ran the South Pole Public House until he died in 1938.
The pub remains there today and in the bar you can drink a pint of beer from his eponymous brewery, surrounded by memorabilia of his Antarctica exploits.