Druglords, Mercenaries, and Radios — The Incredibly Strange History of a Place Called Sealand

The insane history of a micronation you’ve never heard of

Roy and his wife Joan, Credit: sealandgov.org

The application of international waters can be a tricky subject. For most countries, the general rule of thumb is a country’s water-boundaries extend 200 nautical miles in the seas.

• But what happens when countries are next-door neighbors?
• When their continental shelves extend way beyond the land?
• Or when a WWII relic was never torn down and sits in what used to be international waters but no longer is?

Well, that’s the case of an amusing little micronation called The Principality of Sealand located just off the coast of England.

WWII Relics

During WW2, the British government constructed several forts in the middle of the causeway between France and England. They did this to deter and combat mine-laying enemy Nazi aircraft.

One of these bad boys was called HM Fort Roughs. It used to look like this back in its prime: