flâneur

The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat

theverge.com · 10,667 words · saved by 1 readers

How one crew risked radiation, storms, and currents to save Japan from digital isolation.

The internet is carried around the world by hundreds of thousands of miles of slender cables that sit at the bottom of the ocean. These fragile wires are constantly breaking — a precarious system on which everything from banks to governments to TikTok depends. But thanks to a secretive global network of ships on standby, every broken cable is quickly fixed. This is the story of the people who repair the world’s most important infrastructure. The Verge homepage The cloud under the sea By Josh Dzieza By Josh Dzieza Art by Kristen Radtke Art by Kristen Radtke Photography by Go Takayama Photograph

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