The Principality of Sealand () is an unrecognised micronation on HM Fort Roughs (also known as Roughs Tower), an offshore platform in the North Sea approximately twelve kilometres (6+12 nautical miles) off the coast of Suffolk, England. Roughs Tower is a Maunsell Sea Fort that was built by the British in international waters during World War II. Since 1967, the decommissioned Roughs Tower has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state by the family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates. Bates seized Roughs Tower from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station there. Bates and his associates have repelled incursions from vessels from rival pirate radio stations and the U.K.'s royal navy using firearms and petrol bombs. Since 1987, when the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, the platform has been in...Read more

The Principality of Sealand () is an unrecognised micronation on HM Fort Roughs (also known as Roughs Tower), an offshore platform in the North Sea approximately twelve kilometres (6+12 nautical miles) off the coast of Suffolk, England. Roughs Tower is a Maunsell Sea Fort that was built by the British in international waters during World War II. Since 1967, the decommissioned Roughs Tower has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state by the family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates. Bates seized Roughs Tower from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station there. Bates and his associates have repelled incursions from vessels from rival pirate radio stations and the U.K.'s royal navy using firearms and petrol bombs. Since 1987, when the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, the platform has been in British territory.

In 1943, during World War II, Roughs Tower was constructed by the United Kingdom as one of the Maunsell Forts,[1] primarily to defend the vital shipping lanes in nearby estuaries against German mine-laying aircraft. It consisted of a floating pontoon base with a superstructure of two hollow towers joined by a deck upon which other structures could be added. The fort was towed to a position above the Rough Sands sandbar, where its base was deliberately flooded to sink it on its final resting place. This is approximately 7 nautical miles (13 km) from the coast of Suffolk, outside the then 3 nmi (6 km) claim of the United Kingdom and, therefore, in international waters at the time.[1] The facility was occupied by 150–300 Royal Navy personnel throughout World War II; the last full-time personnel left in 1956.[1] The Maunsell Forts were decommissioned in the 1950s.[2]

Occupation and establishment

Roughs Tower was occupied in February and August 1965 by Jack Moore and his daughter Jane, squatting on behalf of the pirate station Wonderful Radio London.

On 2 September 1967, the fort was occupied by Major Paddy Roy Bates, a British citizen who was the owner of a pirate radio, who ejected the competing group of pirate broadcasters.[3] Bates intended to broadcast his pirate radio station – called Radio Essex – from the platform.[4] Despite having the necessary equipment, he never began broadcasting.[5] Bates declared the independence of Roughs Tower and deemed it the Principality of Sealand.[3]

In 1968, British workmen entered what Bates claimed to be his territorial waters to service a navigational buoy near the platform. Michael Bates (son of Paddy Roy Bates) tried to scare the workmen off by firing warning shots from the fort. As Bates was a British subject at the time, he was summoned to court in England on firearms charges following the incident.[6] But as the court ruled that the platform (which Bates was now calling Sealand) was outside British territorial limits, being beyond the then 3-nautical-mile (6 km) limit of the country's waters, the case could not proceed as it was not within British jurisdiction.[7][8] Bates considers this Sealand's first instance of de facto recognition.[9]

In 1975, Bates introduced a constitution for Sealand, followed by a national flag, a national anthem, a currency, passports, and an immigration stamp.[10]

1978 attack and Sealand Rebel Government

In August 1978, Alexander Achenbach, who described himself as the Prime Minister of Sealand, hired several German and Dutch mercenaries to lead an attack on Sealand while Bates and his wife were in Austria invited by Achenbach to discuss the sale of Sealand.[11] Achenbach had disagreed with Bates over plans to turn Sealand into a luxury hotel and casino with fellow German and Dutch businessmen.[12] They stormed the platform, and took Bates's son Michael hostage. Michael was able to retake Sealand and capture Achenbach and the mercenaries. Achenbach, a German lawyer who held a Sealand passport, was charged with treason against Sealand,[11] and was held unless he paid DM 75,000 (more than US$35,000 or £23,000).[13] Germany then sent a diplomat from its London embassy to Sealand to negotiate for Achenbach's release. Roy Bates relented after several weeks of negotiations and subsequently claimed that the diplomat's visit constituted de facto recognition of Sealand by Germany.[14]

Following the former's repatriation, Achenbach and Gernot Pütz proclaimed a government in exile, sometimes known as the Sealand Rebel Government or Sealandic Rebel Government, in Germany.[14] In 1987, the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles. Sealand now sits in waters internationally recognised as British.[15]

Sealand previously sold fantasy passports (as termed by the Council of the European Union), which are not valid for international travel.[16] In 1997, the Bates family revoked all Sealand passports, including those that they themselves had issued over the previous 22 years,[14] due to the realisation that an international money laundering ring had appeared, using the sale of fake Sealand passports to finance drug trafficking and money laundering from Russia and Iraq.[17] The ringleaders of the operation, based in Madrid but with ties to various groups in Germany, including the rebel Sealand Government in exile established by Achenbach after the attempted 1978 coup, had used fake Sealandic diplomatic passports and number plates. They were reported to have sold 4,000 fake Sealandic passports to Hong Kong citizens for an estimated $1,000 each.[18][11] Michael Bates stated in late 2016 that Sealand was receiving hundreds of applications for passports every day.[19] In 2015, Bates asserted that Sealand's population is "normally like two people".[20]

2006 fire  Sealand several months after the fire

On the afternoon of 23 June 2006, the top platform of the Roughs Tower caught fire due to an electrical fault. A Royal Air Force rescue helicopter transferred one person to Ipswich Hospital, directly from the tower. The Harwich lifeboat stood by the Roughs Tower until a local fire tug extinguished the fire.[21] All damage was repaired by November 2006.[22]

Attempted sales

In January 2007, The Pirate Bay, an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software founded by the Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, attempted to purchase Sealand after harsher copyright measures in Sweden forced them to look for a base of operations elsewhere.[23] Between 2007 and 2010, Sealand was offered for sale through the Spanish estate company InmoNaranja,[24] at an asking price of €750 million (£600 million, US$906 million).[25][26][27]

Death of founder

Roy Bates died at the age of 91 on 9 October 2012; he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years. His son Michael took over the operation of Sealand,[28][29] although he continued to live in Suffolk,[30] where he and his sons were operating a family fishing business called Fruits of the Sea.[31] Joan Bates, Roy Bates's wife, died in an Essex nursing home at the age of 86 on 10 March 2016.[32]

^ a b c Zumerchik, John (2008). Seas and Waterways of the World: An Encyclopedia of History, Uses, and Issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 563. ISBN 978-1-85109-711-1. Retrieved 12 January 2021. ^ Milligan, Markus (20 May 2020). "The Maunsell Sea Forts". HeritageDaily Archaeology News. ^ a b Ryan, John; Dunford, George; Sellars, Simon (2006). Micronations. Lonely Planet. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-74104-730-1. ^ Gould, Jack (25 March 1966) [24 March]. "Radio: British Commercial Broadcasters Are at Sea; Illegal Programs Are Beamed From Ships". The New York Times. ProQuest 116890783. Retrieved 19 December 2015. ^ "Radio Essex". Offshore Echos. Archived from the original on 17 September 2014. ^ Garfinkel, Simson (1 July 2000). "Welcome to Sealand. Now Bugger Off". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. ^ Regina v. Paddy Roy Bates and Michael Roy Bates (The Shire Hall, Chelmsford 25 October 1968), Text. ^ McConnell, Fiona; Moreau, Terri; Dittmer, Jason (1 June 2012). "Mimicking state diplomacy: The legitimizing strategies of unofficial diplomacies". Geoforum. Space, Contestation and the Political. 43 (4): 804–814. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.01.007. ISSN 0016-7185. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Cite error: The named reference MacEacheran2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ a b c "171: Sealand". Criminal (Podcast). Vox Media Podcast Network. 27 August 2021. ^ Payne, Adam (2 March 2017). "WELCOME TO SEALAND: The utterly bizarre independent micronation that's been sitting off the British coast for over 50 years". Business Insider. ^ "Attempt to free captive from private 'island' fails". The Times. 5 September 1978. p. 3. ^ a b c Ryan, John; Dunford, George; Sellars, Simon (2006). Micronations. Lonely Planet. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-74104-730-1. ^ Cite error: The named reference ward was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ "Table of travel documents entitling the holder to cross the external borders and which may be endorsed with a visa - (Parts II and III) and Part V (documents to which visas cannot be affixed)". 17 June 2010. ^ Gooch, Adela (12 April 2000). "Police swoop on Sealand crime ring". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. ^ Boggan, Steve (23 September 1997). "Money Laundering: Global fraudsters use sea fortress as passport to". The Independent. ^ "Sealand swamped by passport applications after Brexit and Trump". Express.co.uk. 17 January 2017. ^ Eveleth, Rose (14 April 2015). "'I rule my own ocean micronation'". BBC Future. BBC. ^ "Blaze at offshore military fort". BBC News. BBC. 23 June 2006. Retrieved 4 September 2023. ^ "Sealand Renovation Update 4". Church and East. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. ^ Graham, Flora (16 February 2009). "Technology: How The Pirate Bay sailed into infamy". BBC News. BBC. ^ "Tiny North Sea tax haven for sale". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Agence France-Presse. 8 January 2007. ^ "£65m price tag for Sealand tenancy". Ipswich Star. 6 January 2007. ^ "For sale: world's smallest country". The Sydney Morning Herald. Agence France-Presse. 8 January 2007. ^ "'Smallest state' seeks new owners". BBC News. BBC. 8 January 2007. ^ Braun, Adee (30 August 2013). "From the Sea, Freedom". Lapham's Quarterly. Retrieved 1 November 2021. Roy Bates died in 2012, and was succeeded by Prince Michael... ^ Alexander, Michael (2 August 2013). "Prince Roy of Sealand Memorial Coin Launched". Coin Update. Prince Roy was succeeded by his only son, the Prince Regent – now Sovereign Prince Michael... ^ Ryan, John; Dunford, George; Sellars, Simon (2006). Micronations. Lonely Planet. p. 9–12. ISBN 978-1-74104-730-1. ^ Milmo, Cahal (19 March 2016). "Sealand's Prince Michael on the future of an off-shore 'outpost of liberty'". The Independent. ^ Milmo, Cahal (14 March 2016). "'Princess Joan of Sealand' has died aged 86". The Independent.
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