The ultimate lighthouse: from illumination to monitoring of the French coastline (1967-1988)

Through the story of a technical project from the 1970s, a ‘super lighthouse’ that was to be built 40 miles off the island of Ouessant, this text adresses a paradigm shift in the approach to maritime safety in France, from illuminating to coastal surveillance. The story of the ‘super lighthouse’ tells the fall of an institution: the French Lighthouse Service created during the 19th century. Il also reveals the rise of new infrastructures dedicated to surveillance and rescue, the French Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCC), knows as CROSS (Regional Operational Centres for Surveillance and Rescue). The sinking of the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz on the morning of 16 March 1978 accelerated the deployment of the CROSS centres but, paradoxically, also launched the anachronistic ‘super lighthouse’ project. Unknown beyond the world of seafarers, the CROSS and its watch team exist little or not at all as a subject for novels or documentaries, while the lighthouse and its keepers still constitute an active technical and maritime utopia.