September 2, 1967: Pirate radio boss captures North Sea fort - and declares the independent Principality of Sealand
In the midst of the pirate radio boom of the
sixties, one enterprising station owner found a way round British broadcasting
laws - by seizing a World War II sea fort off the and declaring it an
independent state.
On
this day in 1967, a pirate radio operator took over a sea fort off the east
coast of England and declared it a sovereign state: the Principality of
Sealand.
HM
Fort Roughs was one of several platforms – known as the Maunsell Sea Forts –
built to protect Harwich and the Thames Estuary during World War II.
A rectangular, 51m x 27m pontoon base
supported by two 60ft concrete towers, ‘Roughs Tower’, as it is also known, was
constructed in 1942 and stands in Rough Sands, a sandbar seven miles off the
coast of Suffolk and 10 miles from Harwich seafront.
Throughout WWII it was occupied by
150–300 Royal Navy personnel and used as an anti-aircraft base. After being used
by the British government for various purposes, all full-time personnel were
removed from the platform in 1956.
In 1965, Roughs Tower was briefly occupied by
Jack Moore and his daughter Jane, who squatted there on behalf of the pirate
station Wonderful Radio London.
Then in the following year, Paddy Roy Bates,
who operated Radio Essex, and Ronan O'Rahilly, who created Radio Caroline,
seized it. After disagreements, Bates claimed it as his own – defending the fort
against O’Rahilly with guns and petrol bombs.
British Authorities ordered Bates to surrender – and in August 1967, the
Marine Broadcasting Offences Act was passed, making it illegal for pirate radio
stations to be operated by or employ British citizens. On September 2, Bates
declared independence and deemed the platform the Principality of Sealand,
titling himself Prince Roy.
In 1968, British workmen entered what Bates
claimed to be his territorial waters and his son Michael tried to scare them off
by firing warning shots. Firearms charges against Bates were dropped, however,
as the court said that the platform was outside the three-nautical-mile limit of
Britain’s waters and thus outside the jurisdiction of the domestic courts: a
ruling that helped Bates’s claim that it was worthy of the status of an
independent sovereign state.
In 1974, he and his wife (Princess
Joan, pictured above) went on to create a constitution for Sealand and over the
following years they also produced a national flag, national anthem, currency,
postage stamps and passports.
An incident in 1978 also helped Bates’s
claim. The platform was stormed by mercenaries led by a German called Alexander
Achenbach, who declared himself the Prime Minister of Sealand. Michael Bates
managed regain control and capture Achenbach – who was only released after a
German diplomat from the embassy in London was sent to Sealand and negotiated
for his release. Bates said that the diplomat's visit constituted de
facto recognition of Sealand by Germany.
In 1987, the UK extended its
territorial waters from 3 to 12 nautical miles – meaning that Sealand now sat in
British waters. The platform continues to be managed by the Bates family as if
it were a recognised sovereign entity, and is currently occupied by caretakers
representing 'His Royal Highness Prince Michael' (Michael Bates), who lives in
Essex. There are still debates over whether or not it is a nation.
