Comprehension STOP Use your dictionary to find out the meaning of the bold words below. The Ballad of Tom Crean


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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 who found 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 men, stranded far from home, The whalers at South Georgia, crossed the savage foam; To reach the men who waited, 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 organised, 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.


by Cliff Wedgbury 56 TOM CREAN TOM CREAN TOM CREAN


SOUTH POLE INN SOUTH POLE INN


SOUTH POLE INN


Unit 10 | Narrative 2


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