
The caretakers of Sealand, the most stubborn micronation - stevekemp
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/caretakers-of-sealand
======
Semaphor
Less detailed, but Wikipedia has a nice overview [0] of some things this only
glossed over:

> In August 1978, Alexander Achenbach, who describes 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 England.

…

> 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.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand)

~~~
cheschire
I wonder why it needs to qualify the title of "the Prime Minister of Sealand"
with the statement "who describes himself as the..."

That one issue alone seems to encapsulate this whole topic altogether.

~~~
Semaphor
I mean he established the Sealand Rebel Government as Government in Exile in
Germany. I feel for an unrecgonized nation’s unrecognized rebel government
"describes himself as" is very fitting ;)

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djaychela
In a bit of synchronicity, my step son bought me a nice father's day present,
a lordship of Sealand, so I am now Lord Darren Jones - although I'm not sure
how far I can abuse this title... The document looks highly official though!

~~~
dmckeon
If you fly on British Airways, their passenger identity page has a menu that
includes titles: Lord, Lady, Dame, etc. Of course, you must use this power for
good ...

~~~
adwww
Years ago I chuckled to myself when I selected Admiral from a dropdown when
buying tickets for a gig.

Tickets arrived fine, went to gig, etc.

But the events company must have sold my data in a big way, because for years
later my parents continued to get all sorts of junk mail to the admiral of the
house.

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jacquesm
Heh, maybe the EU could recognize Sealand and suddenly the 12 mile zone would
work the other way... It would also save them having to re-make a lot of
flags.

~~~
PoachedSausage
Nice idea. Half the UK population could apply for dual British/Sealand
nationality and still be in the EU.

~~~
jacquesm
It would get pretty crowded there. Just storing the physical copies of the
files may require adding an extension to Sealand :)

~~~
6nf
I feel like in 2020 we shouldn't even bother with pretending that any bits are
physically inside Sealand, it's all in AWS or Azure or whatever anyway, right?

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BLKNSLVR
I get the feeling most micronations are pretty stubborn:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River)

~~~
082349872349872
Some not-so-micro nations exist briefly: declare independence from a former
sovereign, then vote to be annexed by a new one.

Although the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Hawaii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Hawaii)
lasted a few years, the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Republic)
was in existence for under a month.

~~~
yakireev
The most recent example is probably Crimea:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea#Declaration...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea#Declaration_of_Independence_from_Ukraine)

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aaron695
I think this is a good article on the theory of law and how it's quite
paradoxical -

Sealand, HavenCo, and the Rule of Law - James Grimmelmann

[https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...](https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2628&context=facpub)

~~~
SiempreViernes
Seems interesting, but that's got to be the worst footnote practice I've
_ever_ seen: notes 2 and 3 are used to reference something like 30 _separate_
publications, along with maybe two comment, using only two _very long_
sentences set in small font.

Ugh, what a crime against typography.

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classified
That photo of the Bateses still manages to look futuristic, and that was 1979.
Good style never gets old.

~~~
yencabulator
I'd say straight up James Bond movie villain.

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kwhitefoot
Good to see it's still a going concern.

~~~
PoachedSausage
It is surprising that there haven't been any more incursions by either
government or privateers given that it seems its only guarded by one person at
any time.

I wonder what state the concrete caissons are in. Maybe the sea will reclaim
Sealand in the end as it probably will not be easy or cheap to repair.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Indeed. And I imagine the political cost of taking it over is low, and as a
starting place for an extralegal operation, the value of it is high.

Presuming Sealand continues to be understood as outside the UK's jurisdiction,
I imagine the right motivated investor could actually expand Sealand into a
larger artificial body.

~~~
_-___________-_
A bit of "legal realism" here: if someone takes over Sealand and starts
expanding it and doing anything the UK doesn't like, they will simply put a
stop to it. International law only matters insofar as other nations are
willing to use it, and nobody will care enough about Sealand.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Sure, but to what extent could they operate without upsetting the UK? Some
tax-free tourism? Probably get away with it. Running some sort of
Epcot/Sidewalk Labs-esque experimental town on "land" nobody cares about...
probably also workable.

As long as it doesn't pose a danger to the UK and isn't distinctly criminal in
nature, it's probably not going to get much attention.

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ThePowerOfFuet
This article sounds super interesting, but Atlas Obscura has an obnoxious (and
illegal in the EU) cookie wall. Are there any other sources?

~~~
totetsu
[http://archive.today/wEMn8](http://archive.today/wEMn8)

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m4r35n357
Hilarious stuff!

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kilo_bravo_3
You can call yourself a nation, but if the only reason you exist is the fact
that the price of the fuel needed to ferry a police officer to your location
and arrest you is more than what your country is worth, you're not a nation.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Note that Sealand is outside of the UK's territorial waters. Technically
speaking, that police officer can't legally arrest anyone on Sealand.

Micronations tend to be declared in spots where to do geographic and legal
oddity, no larger jurisdiction actually applies.

~~~
bena
In 1987, the UK extended their territorial waters to 12 miles, which
encompasses Sealand.

~~~
jki275
But it doesn't work that way.

If there's an entity already there, then the difference is split. You can't
just extend your territorial jurisdiction and take over another country.

~~~
yongjik
But that's begging the question, isn't it? If the UK recognizes Sealand as
another country, then of course the difference is split. But the UK clearly
doesn't, so it will just consider Sealand part of its territorial waters, and
every other country (that doesn't recognize Sealand) will side with UK here.

