Heaven Descended to Earth

摘要

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, France, like every other nation, regarded shipwrecks as an inevitable downside of maritime life. There were fewer than 20 lighthouses dotting the French coastline, and these were generally limited to its harbours, intended to guide ships into port. The government did not keep any records about the number of ships that went down, but the numbers were clearly in the hundreds every year.