Sealand

Last crawled date: 2 years, 10 months ago

The Principality of Sealand is a micronation located seven miles (or 11 km) off the coast of Suffolk, UK. It was built in 1942 and was originally used for World War II to guard against the Germans until 1956, where all 150-300 Royal Navy personnel have left Sealand. In 1967, pirate radio broadcaster Major Paddy Roy Bates bought Sealand to broadcast his radio station Radio Essex. The following year, Bates's son fired warning shots at a buoy repair boat that intruded into Bates's territorial waters. He was then brought to court in England over the ordeal, but the case was dropped because Sealand's platform lay too far from the coast of Britain, as it was outside British jurisdiction. On September 2, 1976, Bates and his wife negotiated full independence of Sealand from Britain with British attorneys and then officially declared Sealand's independence. On June 23, 2006, an electrical failure sparked a fire on Sealand's top platform, and it took about five months to repair the damage. In 2007, Sealand was offered for sale, and the asking price is between £65 million and £504 million. #fort_roughs #hm_fort_roughs #independent_sovereign_state #micronation #principality_of_sealand #sealand #sovereign_state #statelike_entity