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It’s My Principality, So Kindly Bugger Off
Islands, April/May 2003
The grandly named Principality of Sealand consists of one leftover World War II fortress with a few gun towers—each basically a steel platform that spans two concrete tubes—sitting in the ocean six miles off the English coast. In the 1960s former army officer Paddy Roy Bates decide the outpost would make an ideal broadcasting base for his pirate radio station. He claimed the sea-girded fortress, then dubbed himself Prince Roy and his wife, a former fashion model, Princess Joan.
The couple’s heir apparent, Michael, recalls his childhood home as “quite civilized,” with TV and modern conveniences, but it was also a battle hub. “We had all sorts of people attacking,” he recalls, “other pirate radio people and the insidious British government tried all sorts of ruses to get us off. I was chucking petrol bombs—any kid would rather do that than go to school!”
Sealand has issued its own money and passports and still maintains its outlaw spirit, having installed computer servers that enable people to store data and run gambling sites beyond the reach of traditional governments. British authorities refuse to recognize Sealand, but haven’t succeeded in claiming it themselves. These days Sealand is looking into associate-member status in the United Nations, although such recognition isn’t essential, Michael Bates says. “After all, international law is only a matter of opinion.”