**THERE ARE SIXTY SHIPS** MEANWHILE, at the bottom of the sea.

**THERE ARE SIXTY SHIPS**

MEANWHILE, at the bottom of the sea.

There are roughly four hundred submarine cables carrying effectively all intercontinental data. There are approximately sixty ships in the world capable of laying or repairing them.

Sixty is a fine number. Sixty is more than most people have.

Around two hundred cable faults occur globally each year. This is normal, has always been normal, and is handled by the sixty ships, which are booked up to three years ahead and average about twenty years old, with some in the thirty to forty range. Most are conversions from other industries. They were not built for this. They were built for something else and then persuaded.

The Institute of Things That Are Probably Fine has assessed the position and found it ROBUST, on the grounds that the cables have not all broken at once. The assessment describes this as the primary control.

Maureen has marked it green.

Africa is served by three maintenance vessels. One in South Africa. One in Cape Verde. One in Oman. The Institute notes that three is a resilient number because it is odd, and odd numbers cannot be divided evenly, which prevents disagreement.

Between thirty and seventy percent of the cost of a repair — the repair itself running one and a half to two million dollars — is fuel burned getting there. The industry is therefore paying, principally, for driving. The cable is a rounding error. The ocean is the product.

Returning the fleet to a sustainable footing is costed at around three billion dollars. Fifteen replacement ships and five additional. None have been ordered. The shipyards capable of building them have elected to build LNG carriers instead, which are more profitable and take half as long. This is not a market failure. This is the market working, briskly, in the direction it always intended.

Martin has signed the resilience statement. Martin last entered the building in 2019. The statement is unqualified.

Dave asked what happens if two cables in the same corridor go in the same week. Dave has been thanked. Dave's question has been logged. Dave's question is now an entry in a register that Maureen reviews annually and marks green.

Kev has a boat.

Kev's boat is not a cable ship, but nobody at the Institute has established this and Kev has stopped answering. On current assessment Kev's boat represents 1.7% of European repair capacity.

Do not be alarmed. The internet has never gone away permanently.

That is the evidence.

That is the whole of the evidence.