Cut cables, closed straits, four majority owners and no rules: The fragile seabed that carries the world’s data
Before dawn on August 5, 1914, hours after Britain declared war on Germany, a British cable ship, the Alert, slipped out to sea on a secret mission. Her orders were to drag the floor of the English Channel for Germany’s five overseas telegraph cables and cut them all. She succeeded. Submarine cables carry over 95%…