World Cultures
In 1966, Paddy Roy Bates and his family occupied an abandoned military platform in the North Sea six miles off the eastern coast of Britain. The following year, Paddy proclaimed himself Prince Roy, ruler of Sealand. In the thirty-odd years that followed, Prince Roy and kin have been busy minting coins, printing stamps, issuing passports, and keepin’ British revenuers offa ther proppity.

In 1968, Michael Bates, son of Prince Roy and the heir apparent, fired upon a British navy vessel that sailed into Sealand’s territorial waters. Had the British navy come to evict the Bates family from its 550 square meters of homeland, or to repair a nearby navigational buoy? Who cares? What matters is that Master Bates was summoned to court over the incident and the court ruled that Sealand was outside British jurisdiction.

In 1978, Prime Minister Achenbach and a group of Dutch businessmen took Sealand by force at a time when Prince Roy was out of the country (that is, he was off the platform). Michael was taken hostage and held at gunpoint. Prince Roy returned by helicopter with a group of mercenaries and retook Sealand. The treacherous Achenbach and his minions were held as prisoners of war until the Netherlands and Germany successfully petitioned for their release.

Achenbach continued to plague Sealand in later years by selling phony Sealand passports. In 1997, the beleaguered Bates family revoked all of the passports that they had issued in the previous 30 years.

Nowadays the principality of Sealand hosts websites through HavenCo. Alas, there is no tourism. Only the Royal Family and HavenCo personnel are allowed to travel to Sealand.
- served up by Oven @ 8:48 PM