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Happy 40th Birthday, Sealand!
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by djbatman | September 2, 2007 at 04:53 am
1548 views | 12 Recommendations | 8 comments
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An abandoned military fortress off the British coasts, about seven miles from Suffolk, England, made the news several times in recent years. Roughs Tower or - as it is more popularly known - Sealand, was in 2000 on the cover of Wired magazine because of a deal with HavenCo, a company willing to build a digital "data haven" on the self-defined "microstate".
The HavenCo history is complicated and also saw the exclusion from the operation of some of the people that originally devised the idea.
But today's news are different: today it is the 40th birthday for the Principality of Sealand: on September 2, 1967, a guy named Paddy Roy Bates took possession of Roughs, transforming it into an unique socio-political experiment with its own coins, stamps, passports, Constitution, a national anthem ("E Mare Libertas", i.e. "from the sea, freedom", by London composer Basil Simonenko) and so on.
Probably, no one would have bid on Sealand's longevity, 40 years ago. Similar attempts in other parts of the world ended up quickly; the "Rose Island" (Isola delle Rose) set up in the Adriatic Sea in the late 1960s by engineer Giorgio Rosa, was seized by the Italian authorities and later destroyed with explosives. It lasted less than a couple of years.
Even shorter was the life of the Republic of Minerva, an island of sand put together in 1972 onto some piece of reef: it lasted less than a year and was annexed by Tonga, the south Pacific country which has always used those waters for fishing.
Sealand - which lacks official recognition from most countries and is not a member of any international entity - kept stimulating the fantasies of many people since that Wired article.
In 2001 a canadian student, Matt Goyer, thought about Sealand as a base for his "Napster Offshore Initiative". The data haven as a MP3 filesharing server, without the limits and the risks of having to deal with international copyright laws.
It didn't work. Goyer didn't even manage to collect the $20.000 necessary to rent a server for his project.
In 2006 a fire hit Sealand, with severe damages to the platform; in 2007, it was put "for sale" via a Spanish company, Inmonaranja.
Ia this point, more filesharing fans - the Swedish guys dubbed as "The Pirate Bay" - put together a website and some money to buy Sealand.
Ironically, they reached what in 2001 would have been enough for Matt Goyer; only, that was now just a tiny fraction of what was needed. Plus, Prince Michael Bates - the current leader, son of Roy Bates - wasn't apparently interested in dealing with "pirates".
The latest news (available on the official source, Sealand News) see Sealand launching an online casino; also, there are plans for a "Survivor"-style reality show, an art installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (those guys who wrapped the Reichstag might now wrap Sealand, next year) while HavenCo is apparently still active and also the Principality is now accepting reservations for visitors.
And oh, there's also a movie production about Sealand, due for release in 2008.
Seems enough, for a country that shouldn't even exist, and today sees its 40th birthday...
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 06:27 on September 2nd, 2007
djbatman, good stuff! I liked how you provided multiple sources within your article. I have one request: could you please remove either the culture or politics tag? The system software currently picks them both up, and as a result, our front page sometimes gets logjammed with the same article repeating.
Have you ever been to Sealand?
at 07:43 on September 2nd, 2007
OK, PEP, correction done.
I left it only under "Culture". Sorry, didn't think tags would have had influence over that (I had chosen the "Culture" category, after all). :)
Nope, I have not been to Sealand. I bought a video cd of a Sealand "tour" done by a guy who did some technical service over the platform; would like to visit someday.
Also, together with my best friend Nicola D'Agostino I have been collecting materials about Sealand for a book proposal (I have several of their stamps, too).
But right now we don't have a publisher yet. We have an index and some chapters, all written in Italian (!). ;)
at 07:48 on September 2nd, 2007
Thanks for making that change. I only recently learned how tags can get picked up by the system.
A book about Sealand? Interesting. Obviously, if you're going to do a book, you have to go there. (Hey, any excuse for a trip!)
Have you checked out Writer's Digest for book publishers?
at 13:25 on September 2nd, 2007
PEP.
Trip:hehe, hope to go there at some point...
Writer's Digest: honestly, what we're trying to do is see if there are any Italian publishers interested. I have also thought about using Lulu.com for self-publishing.
One of the reasons I'm here is my lack of faith in traditional publishers ;)
I run a small record label and in 10 years 90% of the label's income came out from Internet sales, mostly legal MP3s and so on. Probably, time has come for book publishers too to either change some of their policies or end up like the major record labels, who still haven't figured completely what to do with the new technologies...
at 07:50 on September 2nd, 2007
This is awesome, djbatman. Some of us were recently discussing Sealand in the comments of a now-defunct article; denseatoms was telling us how one could buy a lordship or a ladyship of Sealand, but nowhere was one prohibited from buying both!
Microstates have a rich history: Nigerian musical legent Fela Kuti declared his own house an independent nation once.
at 13:41 on September 2nd, 2007
Hehe. You can buy those titles from the Principality's website, but there is also a reseller on Ebay.
When I started reading material about micronations I've found lots of materials and lots of different genres of these "projects", from artistic ones (such as Ladonia) or the nonexisting states made by "artistamp" producer Bruce Grenville/Bruce Henderson (from New Zealand) to stuff that was conceived as a rip-off of some kind. Sealand seems the most complete and successful of the "real" micronational projects.
I have my own micronation too ;) (no it's not a tax haven and no one can apply for citizenship) ;) ...it's called Pescara Republic. I've bought a nice .pr domain in Puerto Rico ;) and have some stamps, too. ;P
A couple of nice books on the subject: Lonely Planet Micronations travel guide
and the classic How to Start Your Own Country by Erwin S. Strauss
. ;)
at 09:55 on September 2nd, 2007
Great story. I'd buy your book! On the subject of micro-nations, there is also the Kingdom of Ladonia
at 13:49 on September 2nd, 2007
Of course! I have a Ladonian citizenship, too ;)
It's not exactly a kingdom, its own definition is "remony" (looks like a cross of republic and monarchy).
This means we have a Queen and a President! ;)