Ten years after joining the British Royal Navy at 16, Tom Crean filled a last-minute spot as a sailor on the Discovery, bound for Antarctica in 1901; the ship and crew spent two years trapped in ice before finally returning home. Tom returned to Antarctica on the Terra Nova expedition with Captain Scott in 1910; he was one of the crew chosen to make the 10-week land trek toward the pole but was later sent back to base camp with two others, one of them injured. Tom eventually walked 35 miles alone to reach help. In 1914 Tom again sailed to Antarctica, this time with Captain Shackleton on the Endurance. After the crew abandoned the ship as it was slowly crushed by ice, Tom and four others voyaged in a small boat through violent seas before hiking across a glacial range to reach help at a whaling station on South Georgia Island. Tom remained humble about his achievements; in fact, he didn’t talk about his Antarctic adventures after retiring to his home in Ireland. But those who sailed with him recounted his mental and physical stamina and the heroic actions that helped save the lives of his crewmates, as well his “raucous sense of humor.” Detailed watercolor and colored pencil illustrations in varied layouts and perspectives capture the drama of his experiences and the beauty of Antarctica. (Ages 5-9)

Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Antarctica is the last unexplored continent. The ice is unforgiving. It can break the human spirit. It takes many men willing to face hardship, danger, and years away from home to journey to this uncharted end of the earth. This is the story of one. His name is Tom Crean.

The Indestructible Tom Crean reveals the incredible true stories of Crean's adventures on the Discovery, Terra Nova, and Endurance expeditions. He hauls eight-hundred-pound sleds full of supplies, escapes from drifting ice floes, and trudges miles alone across a treacherous ice shelf. When the Endurance becomes trapped in the frozen sea and sinks, it is up to Crean and several others to go for help. They sail a tiny lifeboat through the most violent seas in the world and cross a daunting glacial mountain range by foot in order to save their fellow explorers. Tom Crean's heroic acts of courage, perseverance, and teamwork inspire the men to keep going.

Through dazzling mapwork and vivid illustrations, Jennifer Thermes brings a formidable landscape and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration to life.