The world’s smallest nation is little more than a platform in the North Sea. However, despite its tiny size, the principality has a flag, currency, national anthem, and American football teams.
Sealand is a micronation situated approximately 6.5 miles off the coast of Suffolk, in the east of England, with a fascinating history.
During the Second World War, the British government built several fortress islands in the North Sea to defend its coast from German invaders.
More than two decades later, one of these abandoned structures came to the attention of former Maj. Roy Bates, formerly of the British Army, who’d been at loggerheads with the British authorities over a naval fort named Knock John, closer to the coast, from which he operated his own radio station, “Radio Essex.”
According to the Sealand government’s page, Mr. Bates’s station and others like it were affectionately known by the media as “Pirate” radio stations and were much loved by the British public for supplying everything the BBC, at the time, did not: pop music and amusing presenters.
After a few years, the UK government questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Bates’s occupation of the fort. He fought an unsuccessful legal battle, and it was ruled that Knock John fell under UK jurisdiction.
After being kicked off his fort on Christmas Eve in 1966, Mr. Bates learned that another near identical construction existed outside UK jurisdiction. Some 7 nautical miles from the coast, the concrete-and-steel platform known as Roughs Tower was out of the accepted 3-mile range of territorial waters.
His intention had been to reinvigorate his radio station, but instead, Mr. Bates and his family set about earning this fortress island, which they named Sealand, the Guinness World Record for “smallest area to lay claim to nation status.”
On Sept. 2, 1967, the former Major officially declared the Principality of Sealand. He named his wife, Joan, a princess and bestowed his teen son, Michael, and daughter, Penelope, with their own royal titles.
However, the honeymoon period didn’t last long. The British government, alarmed by the potential problems a new country just miles off the coast might bring, ordered the military to recapture and destroy the troublesome fortress. According to official accounts, in the months following the declaration of independence, Major Bates’s son, Prince Michael, “repelled no less than seven armed invasion attempts, employing an arsenal of guns, Molotov Cocktails and homemade projectiles.”
Prince Michael, a British citizen, was charged with several crimes upon his return to British soil. Ultimately, though, an English court was to rule that Sealand was not part of the UK, and he was cleared.
Over the ensuing years, many markers of sovereignty were introduced including stamps and coins that were minted as Sealand dollars. By 1975, 106 people possessed Sealand citizenship along with passports granting them access to the 13,993-square-foot country. Truly dedicated to his cause, Mr. Bates drew up the micronation’s own constitution as well as a national anthem and flag.
Over the years, Sealand has survived many ups and downs but continues to exist to this day.
The less than 1-acre nation consists of seven rooms inside the towers below the waterline, a full-fledged kitchen, a living room, a toilet, a gym, a multi-faith chapel, and a jail.
Electricity is obtained using a combination of wind turbines and solar panels, and fresh drinking water is harvested from rainfall.
The micronation boasts a number of national sports teams including two American football teams, the men’s Sealand “Seahawks” and ladies’ Sealand “She-Hawks.” In summer, it plays host to a grueling open-water charity swim event from Sealand to the UK, and its mountaineering team has taken Sealand’s flag to the summit of four of the seven highest peaks in the world, including Mount Everest. The little nation also has teams competing under the Sealand flag in curling, ice hockey, and long-distance running.
Major Bates died on Oct. 9th, 2012, aged 91. His wife, Princess Joan of Sealand, died aged 86, on March 10, 2016. Their son, Mr. Michael Bates, is the current Prince of Sealand and lives in Suffolk, in the UK.
In a statement at the time of his mother’s death, their son said: “My parents will always be remembered for shaking up the Establishment with pirate radio, declaring Sealand’s independence and confronting the Royal Navy and other foreign governments.”
Prince Liam Bates (L) and Chief Engineer and Head of Homeland Security, Michael Barington in the kitchen. (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
