Passport to Sealand
09 July 2002. 3 comments. Inspired by .
The BBC have run another story about Sealand, which is as good a reason as any to recount a little of this independent territory's turbulent history.
Click on MORE... – trust me, it's a cracker.
It all began in the heady days of pirate radio in the 1960s. Everyone was looking for a safe place to broadcast from, and a solution came when one group successfully placed their transmitter on a ship outside the three mile limit – and so beyond the reach of the licensing authorities. The ocean was the airwaves' oyster.
Keen for a slice of this exciting and potentially lucrative pie, two men started scouring disused military installations within broadcasting range. In 1966, Paddy Roy Bates and Ronan O'Rohilly found what they were looking for: an unoccupied WWII radar platform. So they rowed out to it and immediately declared it the nation of Sealand. Over a bottle or two, they concocted plans of casinos and a tax-free bank.
But then this fledging nation (population:2) suffered its first coup. While O'Rohilly was away, Bates claimed the entire platform as his own. In June of 1967, O'Rohilly launched an offensive, which Bates and his men repulsed with guns, Molotov cocktails, and a surplus flamethrower. On hearing that the Royal Marines were on their way, he declared the platform a principality, and himself Prince Roy.
A Royal Navy ship soon arrived and demanded that Bates abandon the platform. The Prince opened fire. Not expecting this turn of events, the ship retreated. Then, on a trip back to the old country, Bates was arrested and brought before a British court on a number of charges related to the incident. The case was dismissed in October of 1968; the court agreed that Prince Roy's Sealand was outside of British jurisdiction.
A few years later, there was an invasion. While Roy was away, a German businessman visited Sealand. During what appeared to be routine business negotiations, some hired Dutch bodyguards kidnapped Roy's son. The German claimed the territory. But Prince Roy rapidly got together some friends, hired a helicopter and retook the platform's tower. Since the German had accepted Sealand citizenship, Bates arrested him for treason and declared him and his goons prisoners of war. Over the next seven weeks, the German and Dutch governments repeatedly appealed to the British Foreign Office, which insisted that it had no jurisdiction. Further vindicated, Bates eventually released them without payment of his 75,000 Deutschmark fine.
Then during the Falklands War, the Argentines had a cunning plan. In an attempt to make Britain feel threatened on its own coastline, the Argentine government contacted Bates to ask if he might lease Sealand to them as a missile base. Although this would doubtless have raised the profile of his fledgling nation, Bates realised that the British government might have a little less patience towards his enterprise if this were to occur, and so he respectfully declined.
The Principality of Sealand does grant citizenship to those who have helped it in some way, although less than 300 genuine Sealand passports actually exist. Fraudulent ones were being sold in Hong Kong to nervous residents before the Handover in 1997.
Due to ill health, the Prince has ceded control of the country to his son, Michael of Sealand, and the pair issued a joint statement following September 11th, condemning terrorism and announcing that known terrorists would be arrested on sight at the platform.
However, despite the British Government acknowledging activites on Sealand as overseas concerns, judging by their web address, they've yet to convince ICANN.
Info from: http://www.sealandgov.com/history.html, http://www.buckyogi.addr.com/footnotes/nats.htm
3 comments
There has been much afoot in Sealand, since August 2002.
The website (see below) only mentions a small part of the overall picture Sealand, HavenCo, Ltd., and others are relying on here.
Very few know the true status, except . . .
-the Offshore Informant
je m'appelle z.armel et j'ai recu l'imformation su l'ordinateur et sa me precupe.
je cherche aussi des affaits .
je suis au benin ,mon adresse est suivant bp369 tel 229 39/01/98
envoyez moi la reponse lu plus tot possible.
I have only just read your report: Unfortunately your report is incorrect and it is helping to foster a myth: In 1968 the Wilson Cabinet decided that Bates was a nutcase and that the best thing to do was to ignore him and if he ever got out of line to slap him down. That is what has happened. You stated that in 1968 "the court agreed that Prince Roy's Sealand was outside of British jurisdiction." That is incorrect. A local court in Chelmsford, Essex which no longer exists ruled that Rough Tower was outside the jurisdiction of THAT court. The proper venues would have been Essex County Court in Colchester, or the Magistrates' Court in Southend. In 1990 the Official Solicitor and DTI brought the matter before a US Administrative Court and that US Federal Court ruled that Rough Sands upon which Rough Tower sits, is a part of the UK and that "Sealand" does not exist except in the mind of Roy "Paddy" Bates and friends. HM Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the Crown, has told me by phone and by email that Bates' claims are "bunk" and that Rough Sands is a part of the UK and subject to UK law. "Sealand" mail is delivered by the Royal Mail to a British Post Office box in Felixtowe, Suffolk, England. Haven Company was registered by Michael Bates at DTI Companies House in Cardiff. The buoys around Rough Tower have always been maintained by the Ministry of Defence and when Roy Bates said that he would put his own buoy in the water he was told that he better not and he did not. He never broadcast from there - even though he said that he would - because the DTI said that they would prosecute him if he did. Need I continue? So long as he stays out of harms way he will be left alone, but the moment that he actually does something as opposed to saying that he will do something, then his dream will vanish under police and or UK military action. Furthermore, Bates has no idea of what a principality is. In the case of Monaco it is a sub-sovereignty derived from France and the moment that conditions change the principality will revert to the principal = France. Bates should have declared HM Fort Roughs as a republic and ceded from the UK, but of course if he had done that he would have in fact declared war on UK sovereignty. Bates is a fraud and "Sealand" is a myth. No one but an absolute fool would sign an unenforcable contract with Haven Company, unless of course they sign that contract under British law which means that the entire operation is a British entity which is trying to pretend that it is not, and that is called fraud.