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Have there been shipwrecks that have been damaged by undersea communication cables (or even discovered because cables were being laid)? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 days ago by dRLY@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Was reading about undersea com/internet cables. Then just started thinking about how wild it would have been if a wreck like the Titanic had been messed up even more if a cable (or cables) had been dropped on it (or even found due to laying them).

I started searching, but there are too many articles about the cables being damaged and/or sabotaged. But aside from some that talk about potential impact of the environments where they are laid, I haven't seen anything about damaging shipwrecks by the cables or discovering any while being placed.

Would imagine that most of the cables are placed outside of really busy shipping routes, and avoid unnecessarily deep sections. Still would be kind of interesting to know.

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[–] Soapbox@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The ocean is massive. Seems like very low odds that a cable would hit one.

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

True, and I am sure that the issue is low enough depending on locations (if they lay them far outside of normal shipping lanes). But the same holds true for locating wrecks even when looking for them and having vague ideas as to general areas ships sank. At least if looking in areas that don't already have history for being where a lot of ships went down. Which I imagine the companies laying the cables tend to avoid for the headache of both causing issues for the cables, and dealing with underwater archeologists trying to preserve sites.

[–] Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't know specifically about shipwrecks, but there's a lot of unexploded WW2 ordinance in the seas around the UK that cause problems, along other things. There's an effort to map the sea bed of the north sea, because there's so many cables and wind generators going in.

Here's a relevant podcast episode: https://engineeringmatters.reby.media/2024/01 a/25/249-the-cables-that-bind-our-world-together/

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Thanks for the link, the nightmare that is unexploded ordinance is a real issue land or sea. I have seen some random videos from people that do magnet fishing or similar small salvage cleanups share about finding some scary shit. Not sure of the channel, but one guy found a lot of ordinance in a park of a big USA city from WW2. Apparently fell in the lake/river (can't remember which) while in route to be sent to Europe. Also seems common for magnet fishers in Europe to find old grenades and stuff. Which would be true of any places war takes place.