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You Tube - The Ballad of Tom Crean

The Ballad of Tom Crean - Cliff Wedgbury
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"The Ballad of Tom Crean"
He ran away to join the navy, when he was just fifteen,
The farmer's son from Annascaul, the tough and brave Tom Crean.
Now the unsung hero, who sailed with Captain Scott,
On a doomed attempt to reach the Pole,
To explore that frozen plot.
'Twas Crean helped find Scott's body, frozen where he slept,
He built a cairn upon the man, said his prayers and wept.
With Shackleton he sailed again, to chart the icy waste,
Upon the ship Endurance, an icy hell he faced.
Frozen in the ocean, the vice of winter fell,
He made it to the island down that glacier of hell,
To tell the story of the crew, trying to survive,
The whalers at South Georgia, amazed they were alive;
Weakened men now waiting, for long months it is told,
Sheltering in upturned boats, upon a beach so cold,
Eating seal and penguin, seaweed from the shore,
Never ever knowing,
If they would see their homes once more.
With Shackleton he bravely sailed, to rescue every man,
A kind and loyal friend to all, this cheerful-hearted man.
With a song to help the weary, a tune to lift the sad,
Always optimistic, this happy sailor lad.
For without a tough man's courage, determination too,
Things could have been so different,
For that sad and stranded crew.
Yet, the James Caird made South Georgia,
Mountain peaks were climbed,
Relief was quickly organized, for the poor souls left behind.
But he came home and fell in love,
A local girl he wed,
The South Pole Inn he opened,
To pull black pints instead.
A father of three daughters, Mary, Kate, Eileen,
Though he left this world at sixty one,
His deeds live on, Tom Crean.