Patrick Keohane 1879 : Short Biography

Born in Barry's Point, Cork on the 2nd of June, 1879 to Timothy Keohane and Julia Maloney, Patrick Keohane was a sailor from birth. His father was a fisherman who worked on the local lifeboat. Patrick joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16, eventually rising to the rank of Petty Officer. At the age of 30, following a recommendation from fellow Cork man Robert Forde, Patrick was chosen to be part of Scott's Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica. Whilst on the expedition in Antarctica, Patrick was part of the race for the pole, but was sent back when he was 350 miles short of the destination.

Scott's journal describes a rhyme that Patrick composed whilst on expedition,

The snow is all melting and everything's afloat, If this goes on much longer we shall have to turn the tent upside down and use it as a boat                                           

After a failed attempt to rescue Scott and his remaining men, Patrick was forced by the weather to wait out the Winter in Antarctica before making the journey to recover the bodies of the perished. They discovered the frozen bodies of Scott and his two men on the 12th of November 1912. Patrick and the remaining men erected a wooden cross in memory of the deceased. 

Patrick returned home to Cork and married a local woman named Bridget Mary O'Driscoll. They later relocated to England. Patrick died in Plymouth in 1950.