In my February 3 post, I noted several recent breaks in important sub sea cables. Some of the breaks were suspected as deliberate acts of sabotage but nothing could be proven.
The infamous Baltic break in January that implicated the Bulgarian ship Vezhen was explained as due to "defective equipment and seamanship". There was apparently no doubt that the ship dragged its anchor through the cable, but conspiracy theorists did not buy the excuse.
The Cabot Strait breaks of two cables between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland resulted in the Halifax based cable ship IT Intrepid going to the scene and performing splicing operations to restore the connections.
IT Intrepid 2013 photo.
Recent press reports show the cable break as a clean cut, and claim that it had to be deliberate. They further state that a previous break in the same area was also deliberate. Apparently the cable was not buried below the sea floor and was likely fetched up by trawl gear. If so it was likely cut to free it from entanglement. Escaping the scene without blame would be understandable, though not justified. One has to wonder what the motivation might be for deliberate sabotage - but the conspiracists are having a field day.
(Readers of the press report might be confused when it referred to a "rover" which was sent down to find the cable. In fact it was a R.O.V. (remotely operated vehicle).
The IT Intrepid made quick work of the repairs despite the complexity of splicing fibreoptic cable. The ship sailed from Halifax Febraury 1, returned February 6, sailed again February 8 and returned February 13.
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