I guess that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Posted on 01/08/2007 2:39:02 PM PST by presidio9
For sale: the world's smallest country with its own flag, stamps, currency and passports.
Apply to Prince Michael of Sealand if you want to run your own storm-tossed nation -- even if it is just a wartime fort perched on two concrete towers in the North Sea.
Built in World War Two as an anti-aircraft base against German bombers, the derelict platform was taken over 40 years ago by retired army major Paddy Roy Bates who went to live there with his family.
He declared the platform, perched seven miles off the east coast of England just outside Britain's territorial waters, to be the principality of Sealand.
The self-styled Prince Roy adopted a flag, chose a national anthem and minted silver and gold coins as its currency.
The family saw off an attempt by the Royal Navy to evict them and also an attempt in 1978 by a group of German and Dutch businessmen to seize Sealand by force.
"I was held prisoner out there for three or four days and then managed to get back to England," Roy's son Michael told BBC Radio on Monday.
"I slid down a rope out of a helicopter with my father and a couple of comrades and took the place back against armed opposition. It was quite a high point in my life," he said.
Prince Michael, whose 85-year-old father now lives in Spain, said his family had been approached by estate agents with clients "who wanted a bit more than a bit of real estate, they wanted autonomy."
Asked what were the delights of living on Sealand, the 54-year-old prince said "The neighbours are very quiet. There is a good sea view."
"There is no jurisdiction by any other country in the world," he said, suggesting it could be a base for online gambling or offshore banking.
Calling it a cross between a house and a ship, the prince acknowledged it was not the world's most picturesque country, boasting as it does two large concrete towers with eight rooms in each tower.
"It is fairly bleak," he conceded. ""But it is quite pleasant sitting inside in the warm and watching the horrendous weather roaring past the double-glazed windows."
So what did he expect to get for Sealand?
"We shall see," Prince Michael said. "I will listen to anybody who wants to talk."
Ah, pursuing adbication to enjoy life in retirement. Following in the footsteps of his royal brethren Diocletian and Charles V.
Ha. First thing I'd do is raise taxes.
Sealand forever!
Can he get a seat in the UN? We could use another ally.
Related article, pictures in responses...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1763980/posts
I guess that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Since it's becoming clear Texas is never going to secede, that might be the way to go.
In the 70's I read that the old WW2 USS Enterprise had sold for scrap for less than half a million dollars. This led me and a friend to conceive a scheme to buy an old aircraft carrier, anchor it in the Carribean and declare independance. We were going to call our new country Sodom, and if things worked out we were going to do another one and call it Gomorrah. We figured that we could declare war on the US then immediately surrender and apply for foreign aid!
Aside from the obvious value as a tax evasion, gambling, and other Internet no-nos haven, Sealand can both serve itself and its clientele in an interesting way:
Open a duty-free shop and charge anyone who docks a "ballast tax". That is, access to the duty-free shop is based on a ship's dumping some of their ballast overboard at the base of Sealand. If they wish to keep their ballast, then they can drop any sizeable weight, say, a 1-ton boulder.
This is not as ridiculous as it sounds, as Sealand is located atop a sand bar, and with even 100 such boulders, it would be perhaps the only island at sea that is growing in size without the help of a volcano.
And the larger Sealand grows, the more it starts to make sense as a nation.
Some of my buddies (but never myself) had quite a bit to drink on certain occasions. We NEVER had enough to dream up a scheme so logical, so daring, and so completely well thought out as yours!
I salute you!!
OK I looked at the pictures.....the beach is a bit disappointing
I say we host a massive freepathon and host the FR servers there~!
Gee, I think you just described the plot for "The Mouse that Roared"...grand duchy of Fenwick declares war on US to get foriegn aid.Great Peter Sellers flick.
Did Paddy Roy Bates pay anything for the platform, and if so, how much?
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