Wreckers（ISBN=） 英文原版

　　Bella Bathurst’s first book, the acclaimed The Lighthouse
Stevensons,told the story of Scottish lighthouse construction by
the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson. Now she returns to the sea
to search out the darker side of those lights, detailing the secret
history of shipwrecks and the predatory scavengers who live off the
spoils. Even today, Britain’s coastline remains a dangerous place.
An island soaked by four separate seas, with shifting sand banks to
the east, veiled reefs to the west, powerful currents above, and
the world’s busiest shipping channel below, the country’s offshore
waters are strewn with shipwrecks. For villagers scratching out an
existence along Britain’s shores, those wrecks have been more than
simply an act of God; in many cases, they have been the difference
between living well and just getting by. Though Daphne Du Maurier
made Cornwall Britain’s most notorious region for wrecking, many
other coastal communities regarded the “sea’s bounty” as an
impromptu way of providing themselves with everything from
grapefruits to grand pianos. Some plunderers were held to be so
skilled that they could strip a ship from stem to stern before the
Coast Guard had even left port, some were rumored to lure ships
onto the rocks with false lights, and some simply waited for winter
gales to do their work. From all around Britain, Bathurst has
uncovered the hidden history of ships and shipwreck victims, from
shoreline orgies so Dionysian that few participants survived the
morning to humble homes fitted with silver candelabra, from
coastlines rigged like stage sets to villages where everyone owns
identical tennis shoes. Spanning three hundred years of history,
The Wreckers examines the myths, the realities, and the
superstitions of shipwrecks and uncovers the darker side of life on
Britain’s shores.

　　Bella Bathurst is the author of The Lighthouse Stevensons,
which won the Somerset Maugham Award, and of the novel Special. Her
journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, the London Sunday
Times, and other major periodicals. Born in London, she lives in
Scotland.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 FALSE LIGHTS
2  GOODWIN  SANDS
3 PENTLAND FIRTH
4 SCILLY ISLES
5 WEST COAST
6 ROYAL FISH
7 CORNWALL
8 EAST COAST
EPILOGUE
Bibliograpby
Index