Undersea cables as a long-running gray-zone target

Modern concern about damaged Baltic cables sits within a much older history of deliberate cutting and uncertain attribution. Britain's purchase of Stirling Castle is offered as an example of preparations made before the latest public attention to the threat. Historical comparisons include Britain's cutting of German cables during World War I and the Russian Second Pacific Squadron's damage to the link between Gibraltar and Morocco. Cable incidents can also involve genuine accidents, which complicates attempts to identify deliberate interference. A later return to the subject recalls repeated incidents before World War II and suggests, without confirming, that British repairs could have included attaching equipment to the cables.