The lawlessness of the oceans has given rise to countless absurd and remarkable stories of renegades and mavericks seeking to escape national sovereignty.
Sealand is a perfect example. A “micronation” consisting of an eerie metal platform atop a concrete base that is located a few miles off the coast of England in the North Sea, Sealand was originally built as a British antiaircraft outpost. On Christmas Eve 1966, Paddy Roy Bates, a retired British army major, drove a small boat, used a grappling hook and rope, clambered onto the abandoned platform, declared it conquered and deemed it a gift for his wife, Joan.
It was not a luxurious palace. Built in the early 1940s as one of five forts that defended the Thames, the place was little more than a wide deck about the size of two tennis courts set atop two hollow, concrete towers, 60 feet above the ocean. These two stories are told in detail in the fourth episode of the"Outlaw Ocean" podcast, from CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times. Listen to it here:
A provision in maritime law treats a ship in international waters like a floating embassy — in effect, a detached chunk of the land whose flag it flies. That means the laws that apply onboard are only those from the country where the ship is registered. Where a country’s federal law may forbid abortions, the jurisdiction of that law only reaches the limits of national waters, or 12 miles from shore.
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