The Principality of Sealand (link below,) recently came to my attention. It is a crazy story. A guy named Roy Bates used to run a pirate radio station called 'Radio Essex' in the 1960s on an old offshore Fortress. These Fortresses were sealine defence platforms established in the Second World War to shoot down aircraft and act as protection against ocean bound invasion. When the government booted him off this fortress, he went to another one situated seven miles out to sea. The authorities wanted to shut this one down as well but the government's jurisdiction only stretches out to three miles off the coast, at which point it becomes International waters, and as this Fortress is seven miles off land, they couldn't touch him. Roy named the Fortress 'Sealand,' declared it a Principality, devised its own currency, designed it's flag and he, his family and 'followers' are still there today. Thoroughly bizarre. Perhaps Sealand could be overthrown by marauding Brummie pirates and renamed 'Balti Land,' the curry capital of the world. Just a thought...
Sealand
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for getting in touch...