Yea, I was pretty shocked when I learned about this when I was young.

"So you're telling me there's literally cables under the sea that connects continents together?"

http://i.imgur.com/f6V2jab.gifv

Neal Stephenson has a great little non-fiction piece on these cables, both overland and undersea, talking about the process of laying them down and negotiating what countries they go through, etc. It was unexpectedly tucked into the end of my version of Cryptonomicon, but it might be available separately. I agree, I'm fascinated as well.

It was originally published in wired. It is indeed a great write up on the topic!

http://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

That literally just took me a week's worth of free time to read. Absolutely worth it.

Several years ago I read a short book with a similar theme: The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage.

Another inspiration to me was a 25 minute video about the HVDC lien linking North and South Island in New Zealand. https://hackaday.com/2015/08/19/retrotechtacular-one-does-no...

I wonder if anybody will make a popular game out of estimating cable slack?

At the time that was one of the greatest nonfiction pieces I had ever read about

There is a great book, called "Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet". It's about the plumbing of the Internet that covers pretty much all the physical aspects of what make the Internet including the undersea cables. The author even watched them land a new undersea cable. It's a quick read.

http://amzn.com/0061994952

Any comparable pics you can link to?

Perhaps some PR photos already exist on wikimedia commons.

They're usually not very secret, and you probably just have to search around a bit. Here's the cable bin on an unidentified ship: http://imgur.com/Oc24DNN

I have attached a few photos that were released by MSC. The first link is a general directory for the entire T-ARC fleet. The USNS Zeus (T-ARC-7) is the only remaining cable laying ship in the Navy.

Another cool thing you can do is use the 3rd link to track a lot of the ship! The Zeus is currently underway in Bermuda. It's not on a mission right now AFAIK. If it goes dark you know it's on a mission for a more secure cable line.

I can confirm that the drum linked above is not on the Zeus. The Zeus has two huge drums like that, but they are below main deck. The Zeus also has a cool as fuck hat that I really want, but so far no crew will give me one. A unidentified high officer said he would give me his if I kept the steering wheel for him after it's removal. Sadly, that'll be in the possession of NASSCO/Shipyard and then MSC after the work.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/27/27idx.htm http://www.msc.navy.mil/PM4/images/Zeusatsea2.jpg http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-70/centery...

There's a TV show called "Mighty Ships" that profiles various larger ships (mostly commercial, though some passenger or military). One episode focuses on the Tyco Resolute, a cable laying ship:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/mighty-ships/tyco-re...

The full version used to be on YouTube.

Map: http://submarinecablemap.com/

In case you never read the famous Wired piece by Neal Stephenson on this topic:

http://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/