Éléonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil Éléonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil Éléonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil (Cherbourg, 6 January 1767 – Octeville, 11 March 1824) was a French Navy officer and captain. Born to the family of a surgeon, Soleil started sailing on a merchantman in 1783. In 1785, he served in the French Royal Navy on a fluyt, before returning to merchant shipping. In August 1789, Soleil joined up as a volunteer aboard on the "Brillant". He returned to commerce again in 1790. On 1 April 1793, Soleil joined the Navy as a midshipman first class, serving on "Brillant" again. In February 1794, he was promoted to ensign, and served on
The empire on which the sun never sets Empire". From the mid-nineteenth century, the image of the sun never setting can be found applied to Anglophone culture, explicitly including both the British Empire and the United States, for example in a speech by Alexander Campbell in 1852: "To Britain and America God has granted the possession of the new world; and because the sun never sets upon our religion, our language and our arts...". By the end of the century, the phrase was also being applied to the United States alone. An 1897 magazine article titled "The Greatest Nation on Earth" boasted, "[T]he sun never sets on Uncle