Wire cutters: how the world’s vital undersea data cables are being targeted

There are 530 submarine cable systems in service around the world, spanning more than 850,000 miles. Photograph: Sybille Reuter/Alamy

The lead-clad telegraphic cable seemed to weigh tons, according to Lt Cameron Winslow of the US navy, and the weather wasn’t helping their attempts to lift it up from the seabed and sever it. “The rough water knocked the heavy boats together, breaking and almost crushing in their planking,” he wrote.

Eventually, Winslow’s men managed to cut the cable with hacksaws and disrupt the enemy’s communications by slicing off a 46-metre (150ft) section.