In the 19th century, sealing vessels visited the South Shetland Islands to exploit animal resources for the global skin and oil markets. The captains or mates of these vessels were responsible for keeping a logbook in which they recorded daily observations of weather conditions, hunting activities, etc. Despite the value of these documents as a source of information, archaeologists studying Antarctic sealing have not always relied on them. This paper examines the potential of logbooks for providing information that is relevant to the archaeological study of sealing in the South Shetland Islands. In particular, it discusses how documentary analysis of exploitation strategies can provide insight into the dynamics that influenced the configuration of sealers’ sites. To this end, we propose a methodology for investigating exploitation strategies, taking into account several archaeologically sensitive variables, including the number, location and duration of landings, as well as the activities carried out during these events. We have taken four logbooks dating from the early and late 19th century – specifically those of the Aurora (1820–1821), the Huron (1820–1822), the Thomas Hunt (1873–1874) and the Sarah W. Hunt (1887–1888) – as case studies to test the proposed methodology.

中文翻译：

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航海日志和南极海豹。探讨 19 世纪早期和晚期的开发策略及其考古足迹

19 世纪，海豹捕猎船访问南设得兰群岛，为全球皮肤和石油市场开发动物资源。这些船只的船长或大副负责保存日志，记录每天对天气状况、狩猎活动等的观察。尽管这些文件作为信息来源很有价值，但研究南极海豹的考古学家并不总是依赖它们。本文探讨了航海日志在提供南设得兰群岛海豹考古研究相关信息方面的潜力。特别是，它讨论了利用策略的文献分析如何能够深入了解影响海豹捕猎者站点配置的动态。为此，我们提出了一种调查开发策略的方法，考虑到几个考古敏感变量，包括登陆的数量、位置和持续时间，以及在这些事件期间进行的活动。我们拿了四本 19 世纪早期和晚期的航海日志——特别是那些极光(1820–1821)休伦湖(1820–1822)托马斯·亨特（1873–1874）和莎拉·W·亨特（1887-1888）——作为案例研究来测试所提出的方法。