Thomas was born on 14th April 1842 in Harrington to Joseph Scarrow, master mariner, and Ann. Thomas had a younger brother George, and a younger sister Jane. Obviously inspired by his father's adventures as a master mariner, Thomas followed in his footsteps, signing on as an apprentice to the ship Kamehameher IV. His first voyage was from Liverpool to Honolulu, Hawaii which took four months. From Honolulu they sailed south to Valparaiso, the principle port of Chile. Whilst there, Thomas wrote a letter to his mother back in Whitehaven.

Thomas served as an apprentice for three years, transferring onto the ship Corea where he promoted to able seaman. In 1861, still only aged 18, Thomas obtained a second mate certificate of competency. In this rank he got a job on the barque Eastern Chief on a voyage from Liverpool to San Fransisco. By 1862 he had achieved his first mate certificate and he susequently worked as first mate on several voyages: to Chile and Singapore on the barque Athelston, and then to Bahia on the ship Braganza.

Towards the end of 1863, he was to hear of his father's untimely death aboard his vessel Teesdale. This probably lead to Thomas gaining a certificate of competency as master at the end of 1864. He was still only 21 years of age. On his return from Paraiba as first mate on Braganza in May 1865, Thomas assembled a crew and took command of his late father's barque, Teesdale. Teesdale was registered in London, and over the next five years, Thomas sailed as master from his London base to the Cape, North America, South America, the Far East and India. During this period, Thomas must had made the odd trip home, as on the 13th May 1868, he married Elizabeth Brocklebank in Harrington. A full list of Thomas's voyages is shown in the table at the end of the page.

In 1871, Thomas acquired a new ship, Invincible. His first voyage was to Adelaide in Australia, the only continent which Thomas had yet to visit. They duly arrived in Adelaide, and then made a further stop in Portland before heading home. During this fateful voyage, Invincible lived up to its name. Sadly, Thomas was not so lucky, and on the 21st September 1871, was tragically washed during a violent storm. The tale is recounted by the first mate, P Renouf.

The cargos carried are, in all but a few cases, a best guess, based on the principle imports and exports of these ports at that point in time.