Sealand: The True Story of the World's Most Stubborn Micronation and Its Eccentric Royal Family

by Dylan Taylor-Lehman

Overview

A swashbuckling tale of international intrigue, armed battles, and Swingin' Sixties radio pirates over a fifty-year history of the world's smallest rebel nation.



In 1967, a retired army major and self-made millionaire named Paddy Roy Bates cemented his family’s place in history when he inaugurated himself ruler of the Principality of Sealand, a tiny dominion of the high seas. And so began the peculiar story of the world’s most stubborn micronation on a World War II anti-aircraft gun platform off the British coast.



Sealand is the raucous tale of how a rogue adventurer seized the disused Maunsell Sea Fort from pirate radio broadcasters, settled his eccentric family on it, and defended their tiny kingdom from UK government officials and armed mercenaries for half a century. Incorporating original interviews with surviving Sealand royals, Dylan Taylor-Lehman recounts the battles and schemes as Roy and his crew engaged with diplomats, entertained purveyors of pirate radio and TV, and even thwarted an attempted coup that saw the Prince Regent taken hostage. Incredibly, more than fifty years later, the self-proclaimed independent nation still stands—replete with its own constitution, national flag and anthem, currency, and passports.



Featuring rare, vintage photographs of the Bates clan and their unusual enterprises, this stranger-than-fiction account of a dissident family and their outrageous attempt to build a sovereign kingdom on an isolated platform in shark-infested waters is the stuff of legend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635767261
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	707,775
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dylan Taylor-Lehman is a nonfiction writer from the foothills of Appalachia who has lived and reported in numerous biomes. Previously a reporter for the award-winning Yellow Springs News, his work has also been published in Atlas Obscura, The Millions, and Narratively, where he is a staff writer. Dylan’s first book, Dance of the Trustees, covers the ins-and-outs of life in a quirky rural town. Articles about explosions, crimes, landfill ecosystems, and the history of the Spanish tortilla can be found at his blog, The Yawning Chasm.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Old Man and the Sea (Fort) 1

Part I The Making of a North Sea Kingdom (1921-1967) 7

1 The War Hero and the Beauty Queen 9

2 Fort Madness 19

3 Rock 'n' Roll Rebellion 33

4 The Battle for Roughs Tower 45

5 A Most Eventful Fall 55

6 E Mare Libertas 65

Part II Guns, Germans, and the Defense of a Dynasty (1967-2000) 81

7 Belasco, Buoys, and the Chelmsford Court of Assizes 83

8 Behold the Trappings of Statehood 93

9 Arrival of the Deutschen 101

10 The Coup: World War Sealand 109

11 The Dynasty Expands 127

12 Shots Fired, Forged Passports, and Outrageous Criminality 145

Part III Surviving the Cyber Age (2000-present) 159

13 Cypherpunks and Offshore Data Storage 161

14 Sealand in the New Millennium 181

15 Athleta Principalitas 197

16 Two Moments of Profound Silence 209

17 A Dark Mirror 219

18 Crew Change 231

19 Prince of the Cockles 243

20 King of the Micronations 253

Epilogue: All Hail the Stubborn Kingdom 265

Appendix: Precedent, Justification, and Scholarly Opinion on Sealand as a Sovereign Nation 273

Notes 287

Bibliography & Sources 305

Acknowledgments 327

Index 331

Editorial Reviews

04/27/2020

Journalist Taylor-Lehman (Dance of the Trustees) delivers a granular history of the Principality of Sealand, a micronation established in 1967 on an anti-aircraft gun platform seven miles off the coast of Essex in the North Sea. After seizing control of Roughs Tower (one of the Maunsell Sea Forts built to defend England from German aircraft in WWII), pirate radio broadcaster Roy Bates and his wife and two children worked tirelessly to transform the decaying platform into a livable space. Using interviews with family members and U.K. government records, Taylor-Lehman retraces the Bates family’s dogged efforts to get Sealand recognized as a sovereign nation and hold off would-be invaders. The Bateses have engaged with diplomats around the world and capitalized on their principality by renting space for offshore data storage, printing Sealandic stamps and money, and offering Sealandic nobility titles for sale on the internet. Though the narrative meanders and sometimes gets trapped in a whirlpool of unnecessary details, Taylor-Lehman delivers a memorable portrait of one family’s attempt to escape, as Prince Roy Bates puts it, the world’s “damn bureaucracy.” This idiosyncratic history entertains. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sealand

“Using interviews with family members and U.K. government records, Taylor-Lehman retraces the Bates family’s dogged efforts to get Sealand recognized as a sovereign nation and hold off would-be invaders. . . . Taylor-Lehman delivers a memorable portrait of one family’s attempt to escape, as Prince Roy Bates puts it, the world’s ‘damn bureaucracy.’ This idiosyncratic history entertains.”—Publishers Weekly



“Sealand is a rollicking ride across a tumultuous and astoundingly improbable history. How did I not know about this? How can a heap of concrete and metal in the North Sea possibly be the newest and smallest country in the world? Prepare to be charmed and transfixed by Roy Bates, the swashbuckling, visionary Prince of Sealand and his 'micro Royal Family' who stave off sea invaders, cyber coups, and attempted governmental takeovers in the name of freedom. An unlikely, remarkable, riveting story."—Buddy Levy, bestselling author of Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition



“In Sealand, Dylan Taylor-Lehman offers a thoroughly researched, stranger-than-fiction account of a rogue principality a fraction the size of Buckingham Palace. With decades of outrageous shenanigans and unparalleled bravado on display, the story of the Bates family gives the term royalty a whole new meaning.”—Robert Jobson, Royal Editor for the London Evening Standard; and author of King Charles: The Man, The Monarch, and The Future of Britain



"Outrageously funny yet tender at its core, Sealand chronicles an oddball visionary's quest to create a legacy that even kings and emperors might envy. The gifted Dylan Taylor-Lehman has blessed us with a book every bit as madcap and admirable as Roy Bates's dream of a sovereign North Sea paradise."—Brendan I. Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us and Now the Hell Will Start



"Sealand proves that a factual story can be weirder than fiction. What makes Dylan Taylor-Lehman’s expertly researched, oddball historical yarn so compelling is its uncanny attention to reality. Spanning swashbuckling invasions and legal hairsplitting, governments in exile and schemes by scammers, this book testifies that even the tiniest of nations—and dreams—can have inspirational and kick-ass origin stories."—Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks



"Dylan Taylor-Lehman deserves an award—or maybe a Sealand title of nobility—for this brilliant tale chronicling a little-known story. Sealand is endlessly captivating, like a thriller, and filled with crisp, evocative writing. Now, you’ll have to excuse me, I’m visiting the principality to become an official 'Lord of Sealand.'"—Bob Batchelor, author of The Bourbon King



Praise for Dance of the Trustees:


"Dylan Taylor-Lehman has a curiosity that knows no bounds, and he has trained it on the quirky concerns of a village and township in southwest Ohio where he lived for two years. Lucky for us, the readers, his narrative voice is as charming and distinctive as his curiosity is strong. This book is a funny, informative, and delightful look at small town shenanigans and goings-on." —Diane Chiddister, Editor, Yellow Springs News

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