The “Principality” of Sealand is a tiny micronation located on an old North Sea oil platform, 7 miles off the coast of Suffolk. Since 1967 it has been occupied and claimed as an independent sovereign state by the Bates Dynasty, initially led by “Prince” Roy Bates and now by his son, Prince Michael Bates. Yes, these daft cunts on their tatty oil rig have declared themselves sovereign princes on a par with princes of the UK.
The Principality of Sealand is really pretty impressive and Bates and his followers have displayed plenty of chutzpa.
In 1968 Prince Roy and his son took pot shots from their dilapidated platform at British mariners who dared to approach their principality.
Then, in 1978, in an incident which sounds like something out of Frederick Forsyth or Ian Fleming, the Bates Dynasty nearly lost control of their principality. Prince Roy had been discussing plans with his “prime minister”, Alexander Achenbach (a former German citizen with a “Sealand passport”), to turn the grotty platform into an international luxury casino.
The PM disagreed with this idea. When Prince Roy left the Principality to visit the continent, Auchenbach staged an attempted coup with German and Dutch mercenaries. They stormed the seaweed infested platform with speedboats and helicopters, and took Prince Roy’s son, the current reigning Prince Michael, hostage.
Prince Michael was able to retake Sealand and capture Achenbach and the mercenaries using weapons stashed on the platform. Achenbach was charged with treason against Sealand and imprisoned in the Principality until he paid £23,000 reparations.
Germany then sent a diplomat to Sealand to negotiate for Achenbach’s release. Prince Roy diplomatically agreed to release Achenbach, but used the visit of a diplomat from a sovereign nation to claim that Sealand had achieved de facto recognition by Germany as a sovereign state.
It is through such incidents that great states are founded.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Undeterred by his defeat, Premier Achenbach established a government in exile, known as the Sealand Rebel Government in Germany. The Principality is still in a constant state of readiness to repel any future attempted coups by the Sealand rebels. Civil war is a constant threat.
It costs money to defend a kingdom. To raise revenues, Prince Michael started selling Sealand passports, just like the UK. Unfortunately, this lucrative trade had to be stopped when Prince Michael realised that his passports were being faked and sold by a money laundering ring which had connections to – yes, you guessed it – former Premier Achenbach.
Achenbach and his associates are reported to have sold 4,000 fake Sealandic passports to Hong Kong citizens for $1,000 each. Not bad ! In 2016 Sealand was receiving hundreds of applications for passports every day. Sealand has also issued stamps and coins.
Sadly, the Bates Dynasty started to lose its grip. In 2010, Sealand was offered for sale for £600 million. There were no buyers.
Prince Michael has retired to Suffolk with his wife, Princess Joan, where he now runs a fishing business called Fruits of the Sea. Its a sad end for one of the crowned heads of Europe. But all is not lost – Prince Michael’s son now runs Sealand on his fathers behalf as “Prince Regent”. The current population of Sealand is two people. Long live Sealand!
Prince Michael of Sealand – cunt or hero? I’ll leave it to you to decide, but I rather think he’s a hero. It would all make a brilliant book as well.
BBC News Link
Sealandgov link
Nominated by: MMCM