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Not long after, Bates was able to retake the tower and captured Achenbach and the mercenaries. Achenbach, a holder of a Sealand passport, was charged with treason by Sealand and was held unless he paid over $35,000 in restitution. The event was important enough to get the German government involved; they had sent a diplomat to Sealand to negotiate a release of Achenbach with Bates. Once freed, Achenbach and his associates returned to Germany and established a “government in exile” of Sealand, still claiming to this day they are
Considered more of a principality, the micronation of Sealand is located on an old British World War II radar platform. It was a Maunsell Sea Fort constructed by the British military in 1943, and originally given the name HM Fort Roughs.
Later it would be renamed Sealand by Major Paddy Roy Bates, who would live there with his family and host a pirate radio station.
The HM Fort Roughs was originally constructed to protect major shipping lanes for the British during WWII; German mine-laying aircraft were targeting the area and increased radar and defense was needed. A location six miles off the coast of Suffolk was chosen, and once constructed the station was home to nearly 300 Royal Navy personnel.
It wasn’t until 1956 when the last assigned personnel were removed from the station and operations ceased that Sealand’s story starts to get more interesting.
A gentleman named Roy Bates later claimed the Fort as his own, re-named it the Principality of Sealand, and insisted that from then-on he was the Prince of Sealand. Bates has since introduced a constitution, flag, national anthem, currency, and even independent passports.
How is this allowed? Sealand sits 6 miles off the shore of Britain, which cites its own territorial waters as only reaching 3 miles offshore (this was later increased to 12 miles in 1987). Technically, Sealand is located in international waters and had no official governing body.
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