An Unsung Hero
Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor
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An Unsung Hero
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Narrated by:
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Gerry O'Brien
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By:
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Michael Smith
About this listen
Tom Crean was the farmer’s son from Kerry who sailed on three major expeditions to the unknown Antarctic over a century ago. He served with both Captain Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton, spent longer on the ice than either and outlived them both.
But Tom Crean returned to Ireland and never spoke about his exploits, taking his incredible story to the grave – until the publication of An Unsung Hero, which unearthed his story and saw him rightfully placed amongst the annals of the great explorers.
©2009 Michael Smith (P)2021 Bolinda PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 711
In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Excellent story
- By Ginger 3701 on 05-23-21
By: Julian Sancton
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Empire of Ice and Stone
- The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 361
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 316
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Story5 out of 5 stars 315
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great adventure story
- By Elaine McCollough on 01-06-23
By: Buddy Levy
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The Worst Journey in the World
- By: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 708
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 524
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 521
This gripping story of courage and achievement is the account of Robert Falcon Scott's last fateful expedition to the Antarctic, as told by surviving expedition member Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Cherry-Garrard, whom Scott lauded as a tough, efficient member of the team, tells of the journey from England to South Africa and southward to the ice floes. From there began the unforgettable polar journey across a forbidding and inhospitable region.
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4 out of 5 stars
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What a story!
- By A. Massey on 05-25-04
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South
- By: Ernest Shackleton
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story5 out of 5 stars 18
On 8 August 1914, five days after the outbreak of World War One, the Endurance, a wooden-hulled, coal-fired icebreaker, set sail for the South Pole, in a bid to complete the first-ever trans-Antarctic expedition, which would cross the continent from the Weddell Sea to Scott's base at Cape Evans, via the Pole. However, despite the best planning, the ship succumbs to the ice floes of the Weddell Sea, and is subjected to months of uncontrollable drifting before its crew makes a scramble for Elephant Island, where they battle constant cold and starvation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding author and narrator - best version
- By Stephen on 12-17-19
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The Lost Men
- The Horrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party
- By: Kelly Tyler-Lewis
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance to be the first to cross Antarctica. Shackleton's endeavor is legend, but few know the astonishing story of the Ross Sea party, the support crew he dispatched to the opposite side of the continent to build a vital lifeline of food and fuel depots.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just OK
- By Michael on 05-17-07
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Fatal North
- Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition
- By: Bruce Henderson
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
It began as President Ulysses S. Grant's bid for international glory after the Civil War - America's first attempt to reach the North Pole. It ended with Captain Charles Hall's death under suspicious circumstances, dissension among sailors, scientists, and explorers, and the ship's evacuation and eventual sinking. Then came a brutal struggle for survival by 33 men, women, and children stranded on the polar ice.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An average reader says 10
- By Barbara on 11-10-16
By: Bruce Henderson
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To the Edges of the Earth
- 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration - set at the world's frozen extremes - lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called "Third Pole", the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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brutally honest accounts unbelievable stories
- By Troy Hamilton on 07-17-18
By: Edward J. Larson
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Erebus
- One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story5 out of 5 stars 95
Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition and finally to Sir John Franklin’s quest for the holy grail of navigation - a route through the Northwest Passage, where the ship disappeared into the depths of the sea for more than 150 years. It was rediscovered under the arctic waters in 2014.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing story
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-24
By: Michael Palin
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Icebound
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Andrea Pitzer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 278
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 238
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 237
In the best-selling tradition of Hampton Sides’ In the Kingdom of Ice, a “gripping adventure tale” (The Boston Globe) recounting Dutch polar explorer William Barents’ three harrowing Arctic expeditions - the last of which resulted in a relentlessly challenging year-long fight for survival.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great book - missing maps :(
- By Stephen on 01-20-21
By: Andrea Pitzer
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Endurance
- Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 25,744
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 22,797
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Story5 out of 5 stars 22,756
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book I've had
- By Thomas Allen on 09-17-08
By: Alfred Lansing
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The Last Viking
- The Life of Roald Amundsen
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 468
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 413
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 411
The Last Viking unravels the life of the man who stands head and shoulders above all those who raced to map the last corners of the world. In 1900, the four great geographical mysteries - the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the North Pole - remained blank spots on the globe. Within twenty years Roald Amundsen would claim all four prizes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding.
- By Leon Miller on 12-01-15
By: Stephen R. Bown
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Race for the South Pole
- The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen
- By: Roland Huntford
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 167
For the first time ever Roland Huntford presents each man's account of the race to the South Pole in their own words. In 1910, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen set sail for Antarctica, each from his own starting point, and the epic race for the South Pole was on. 2010 marks the centenary of the last great race of terrestrial discovery. For the first time Scott's unedited diary entries run alongside those of Amundsen and Bjaaland, never before translated into English.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great account, might be better in hard copy
- By Error9312 on 05-24-22
By: Roland Huntford
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The Man Who Ate His Boots
- The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
- By: Anthony Brandt
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 283
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of 19th-century British exploration. After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the 16th century: Find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over Northern Canada. For the next 35 years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route.
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5 out of 5 stars
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They don't get any better than this
- By Christopher on 08-15-14
By: Anthony Brandt
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,467
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,149
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,143
In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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Island of the Lost
- Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- By: Joan Druett
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,133
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,627
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,610
Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death. In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave inspires his men to take action.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of the Best Stories Ever Told!
- By Tiffany on 04-10-16
By: Joan Druett
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The Ice at the End of the World
- An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Jon Gertner
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 132
In The Ice at the End of the World, Jon Gertner explains how Greenland has evolved from one of earth’s last frontiers to its largest scientific laboratory. The history of Greenland’s ice begins with the explorers who arrived here at the turn of the 20th century. Their original goal was to conquer Greenland’s seemingly infinite interior. Yet their efforts eventually gave way to scientists who built lonely encampments out on the ice and began drilling - one mile, two miles down.Their aim was to pull up ice cores that could reveal the deepest mysteries of earth’s past.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Adventure, Science, Advocacy
- By EM Goodkind on 09-08-19
By: Jon Gertner
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Barrow's Boys
- By: Fergus Fleming
- Narrated by: James Gillies
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
Barrow's Boys is a spellbinding account of perilous journeys to uncharted areas under the most challenging conditions. Fergus Fleming captures the passion for exploration that led a band of men into situations that would humble today's bravest adventurers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow
- By Robert B. Golson on 07-05-17
By: Fergus Fleming
What listeners say about An Unsung Hero
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Suzi B.
- 10-22-22
Well told account of this shy hero
Tom Crean is a legendary Irish explorer to Antarctica. Unsung Hero does a good job of telling his story and helping the reader understand the political, environmental and cultural issues that impacted the attempts to explore Antarctica in the early 1900’s.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 02-01-22
Tom Crean: Modern day Bear Grills
Wow... I loved the book Endurance, which is phenomenal in it's own way. This takes you to the beginning, of how it all started w. Robert F. Scott and the Golden age of Arctic Exploration. Highly recommend! Crean deserves glory... what a life he lived.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazonian
- 12-19-23
Incredibly Engrossing
It was excellent. I loved how much detail was shared and provided. Definitely a must read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- E.Tony Reed
- 05-29-23
Great Book!
Once in awhile there comes along an individual with the determination to endure unbelievable hardships in exploration with an attitude that can inspire others to succeed and that person is well written about in this book. Certainly worth reading!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Laura Louise Bernadette
- 04-05-24
Excellent!
Can’t think of anything I didn’t like, great book overall and good narration. Word word word word word
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- CGB
- 04-06-22
Great adventure story.
Great writing and great research on a truly unsung hero. I recommend this book to anyone that likes true adventure stories, which IMHO should be everyone. I rated the performance low because the reading of every measure in both imperial and metric measurements is just brutal to hard to listen to. Very distracting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kate
- 03-13-23
Riveting
I was captured from the very first. A compelling story with a focus not on Scott, Shackleton, or Amundsen, but on Irishman Tom Crean and his courageous contributions to the Discovery, Terra Nova, and Endurance Antarctic expeditions.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JoBo
- 03-24-23
Magnificent Man, Unbelievable Adventures
The world needs more Tom Creans. A loyal friend and comrade, capable of seemingly superhuman feats while maintaining his humility and equanimity. This story is beautifully written and wonderfully narrated. I learned much that I did not know about the incredibly arduous trips made by the early adventurers to Antartica. Will I be visiting earth’s nether regions? Probably not in this lifetime. The next stop for me will be the South Pole Inn and surrounds in Kerry. Land Ho! Slainte!!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- nerdgirl
- 01-16-22
Must listen for all polar exploration aficionados
Wonderful narrator and refreshingly different from most of the other books about Scott, Shackleton, and others like them. You will love getting to know Tom Crean better, I sure did. Thumbs way up.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicole Forsythe
- 05-16-22
Well read, compelling for Shackletonians
Liked the reading and this particular lens on such a lovely sounding man. Great life, great story, great audiobook.
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