Making visible the invisible. Discussing heterogeneity among sealing groups on the South Shetland Islands

MELISA A. SALERNO; MARÍA JIMENA CRUZ; ROMINA C. RIGONE; ANDRÈS ZARANKIN

Kobe

Conferencia; 2021 SCAR SC-HASS Conference. The Global Antarctic; 2021

University of Kobe -Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

For the last decades now, historical and archaeological research has significantly expanded the knowledge on the nineteenth-century Antarctic sealing industry. Broadly speaking, most research has tended to define general tendencies defining exploitation strategies, sealers’ lives in the region, among others. More recently, some researchers have called for reassessing diversity in the construction of historical narratives about Antarctica. Following this call, in this work we will try to shed light on the heterogeneity of the sealing gangs that visited the South Shetland Islands in the course of the nineteenth century. Even though the vessels that sailed to Antarctica came from different countries, here we will focus on the crews of American ships as a means to circumscribe the analysis. Along with some other documents, crew lists will provide an interesting opportunity todiscuss the diversity of people who visited Antarctica in terms of their places of origin, age, ethnicity/race, etc. Furthermore, it will give a chance to discuss the number of times that some of these people engaged in a voyage to the Southern Seas. Considering this information, we hope to provide a renewed image of the first people who worked and lived on the South Shetland Islands: an image that makes visible the invisible, confronting some of the stereotypes created around visitors to Antarctica.