Pod Insights If You're Listening Matt finally gets to talk about Sealand About this episode Last Thursday's episode touched on the relatively short-lived, Israel-backed microstate of Free Lebanon. For Matt, that's all the excuse he needs to tell the story of his favourite ever micronation: the Principality of Sealand. Especially because, when he mentioned Sealand in an episode last year, so many of you wrote in to say you shared his enthusiasm.
So here we finally are. Today, Matt is telling producer Adair the story of the radio pirate turned actual pirate who declared himself Prince of a rusting gun platform in the North Sea.
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0:52 Speaker 03 G'day, Matt Bevan here, this is if you're listening. If there's one type of story that I love and I wish we could cover more on this show, it's ones about micro nations, the stories of people who plant their feet, say, I've had enough, my backyard is now the sovereign nation of new backyardia. On last week's episode, we looked at one particular micro nation, the state of Free Lebanon, an unrecognised, relatively short-lived Israeli puppet state. It got me thinking about my all-time favourite plucky underdog micro nation. It's called Sealand and when I mentioned it briefly in an episode last year, a lot of you wrote in to express that you shared my enthusiasm. So, here we are.
1:34 Speaker 03 Today, I'm finally telling the story of the radio pirate turned actual pirate who declared himself the prince of a rusting gun platform in the North Sea. I'm joined again by producer Adair Shepherd. Hi, Adair.
1:49 Speaker 04 Hello. Yes, we got a lot of emails about this. There's a lot of Sealand fans amongst the, if you're listeners.
1:59 Speaker 03 So, dear, have you seen the movie The Boat That Rocked from 2009?
2:06 Speaker 04 Yes. Bill Nighy, I love that movie.
2:08 Speaker 03 I hate that movie.
2:10 Speaker 04 Oh, no.
2:13 Speaker 03 The thing was, I didn't hate the movie while watching it. I mean, I did a little bit. I kind of, it's an interesting movie. It's based on pirate radio and it's based on these guys being off the coast of the UK broadcasting rock music into the UK illegally.
2:30 Speaker 04 Yeah.
2:31 Speaker 03 The problem with it is that there's no plot, right?
2:34 Speaker 04 Hmm.
2:34 Speaker 03 It's kind of like, isn't it cool that there were these pirate radio guys? And then there's a storm and the boat sinks. And that's, that's the whole plot of the, of the story.
2:45 Speaker 04 That's true.
2:45 Speaker 03 But the reason I hate this movie is because the amount of drama that there actually was between the pirate radio stations was extraordinary.
2:58 Speaker 04 Okay.
2:59 Speaker 03 And they didn't use any of it, any of the true stories of pirate radio. So I'm going to tell you.
3:06 Speaker 04 Okay.
3:07 Speaker 03 A true story of pirate radio.
3:09 Speaker 04 What the boat that rocks should have been. Okay, I'm excited.
3:11 Speaker 03 And the premise of the, of the story is true in that people were really, really annoyed about the fact that other parts of the world had rock commercial radio.
3:19 Speaker 04 Why didn't they have it?
3:21 Speaker 03 Basically because the BBC had a full monopoly on radio broadcast. There was no other broadcaster in the UK.
3:26 Speaker 04 Oh, wow. Okay.
3:27 Speaker 03 And it was illegal to have another radio station in the UK. And so because it's Europe, various people in the UK would listen to radio coming from the mainland and coming from these illegal offshore radio broadcasters who were broadcasting from boats with big transmitters on top of them, parked out in the ocean. Now, those boats were problematic and kind of really difficult to live on, difficult to broadcast from. And so off the coast of the Thames, so if you can imagine, London, you know, is on the Thames River, the Thames runs east and then it dumps out into the North Sea in kind of a bay area. And in that bay, during World War Two, the British
4:12 Speaker 03 were really concerned that the Germans would come and blockade the Thames and stop boats from coming in and out of the Thames. And so they developed these things called Monsul Forts, which are basically giant concrete structures made of prefabricated concrete that they made on land, and they would float out into the Thames estuary and then basically pull plugs in the bottom of them. They would sink and then sit on the sand bed of the Thames estuary. So it was basically two giant concrete columns with a platform on top and you could put guns on the top of the platform and stop anybody from being able to come into the Thames estuary area and mess around with them at all.
4:56 Speaker 04 Sure, seems like a great solution.
4:57 Speaker 03 It was a good solution.
4:58 Speaker 04 Yeah.
4:58 Speaker 03 And because there were these giant things, these were basically seven storey buildings. They had quarters for like a hundred and fifty navy personnel. And after World War Two, they had no need for these forts anymore and they abandoned them.
5:11 Speaker 04 Mm hmm.
5:12 Speaker 03 So these forts became of interest to the pirate radio broadcasters who wanted to be able to use them.
5:20 Speaker 04 And not be seasick.
5:21 Speaker 03 And not be seasick and not accidentally sink and that kind of thing.
5:26 Speaker 04 Yeah.
5:26 Speaker 03 And so there were four of these forts and a bloke named Patty Roy Bates decided that he was going to commandeer one of those forts and set up a radio station on it, which he called Radio Essex.
5:41 Speaker 05 We're situated on the Knott John Exnaval Fort in the, or just outside the Thames estuary, about approximately 12 miles from Southend, and we are the most seaward fort of them all. And believe me, sometimes we know it. When first seen from the sea is very similar to that of a battleship. So that's what we call it, the old battleship. That's enough about the fort, our power. Well, that's a state secret. Our staff consists, our DJ staff.
6:08 Speaker 03 So, I mean, it's pretty loose content, I think you'll agree.
6:10 Speaker 04 Very loose, yes.
6:12 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, but you've got to remember, this is just a bunch of dudes, they would have to go out on a, on a boat to these forts.
6:19 Speaker 04 They didn't live on the fort.
6:20 Speaker 03 No, they did live on the fort. They, they had to live out there because it was such a nightmare to get back to shore.
6:24 Speaker 04 Okay.
6:25 Speaker 03 But these were just pop music enthusiasts. They would often just be bringing their own record collection.
6:30 Speaker 04 That's great.
6:30 Speaker 03 And playing it, like the radio station didn't have its own record collection. It was just the DJs brought their own things and played them on their show.
6:37 Speaker 04 Yeah.
6:37 Speaker 03 It was very loose. So the thing was that the British government made it clear that they were not going to allow this. And the problem that they had was three of the four forts were technically in British territorial waters.
6:53 Speaker 04 Aha.
6:53 Speaker 03 And the ones that were on British territorial waters were the ones that were most easy to get to from the shore because they were quite close to the shore.
6:59 Speaker 04 Yes.
7:00 Speaker 03 Only one of the four forts was actually in international waters. It had been placed there illegally during World War Two. It was against the law for the British government to do what they did, but you know, it was World War Two and so who cares? But nobody really wanted to go there because it was so far out in the ocean.
7:15 Speaker 04 Yeah.
7:15 Speaker 03 But one of the radio stations, Radio Caroline, went and set up on Fort Ruffs. And Paddy Roy Bates, the owner of Radio Essex, decided that he wanted that fort, thank you very much. And so he rocked up with his son on Christmas Eve, nineteen sixty-six, when they thought that there wouldn't be very many people from Radio Caroline on the fort.
7:36 Speaker 04 Yeah.
7:37 Speaker 03 They went in there, they made it clear that it was theirs now. They didn't actually beat them up, but they kind of made it clear that they would be.
7:44 Speaker 04 Yeah, wow.
7:44 Speaker 03 They would, they would regret it if they didn't leave the fort. So the folks from Radio Caroline left the fort. And from Christmas Eve, nineteen sixty-six, Bates had control of this tower and started broadcasting from this tower.
7:59 Speaker 03 From Christmas Eve, 1966.
8:01 Speaker 04 I do know one thing about Radio Caroline.
8:03 Speaker 03 Oh, yes.
8:04 Speaker 04 The guy who created Radio Caroline, Ronan O'Reilly, he was the manager for George Lazenby, who was the Australian.
8:13 Speaker 03 Sure.
8:13 Speaker 04 James Bond, and he's the person who convinced George Lazenby to quit after one James Bond film, because apparently James Bond was going nowhere.
8:22 Speaker 03 Tremendous call.
8:23 Speaker 04 Yeah.
8:24 Speaker 03 Because, yeah, George Lazenby didn't have a massive career after that.
8:26 Speaker 04 No, no.
8:27 Speaker 03 So the thing was that the fort was extremely attractive to the other radio stations. They really wanted it. Basically, they, they needed to literally fight in order to retain control of the fort. Michael, so this is Paddy Roy Bates's 14 year old son at the time.
8:43 Speaker 04 Oh.
8:44 Speaker 03 Was left on the fort on his own to literally hold the fort.
8:47 Speaker 04 No.
8:48 Speaker 03 On several occasions.
8:49 Speaker 04 Oh, my God.
8:50 Speaker 03 To make sure that nobody took the fort off them.
8:53 Speaker 04 What?
8:53 Speaker 03 He was given a gun.
8:55 Speaker 04 No.
8:55 Speaker 03 And the materials to make Molotov cocktails. And so whenever a boat that he suspected of being hostile came near the fort, he would fire warning shots.
9:05 Speaker 04 Oh, my God.
9:06 Speaker 03 And.
9:08 Speaker 04 Poor boy.
9:08 Speaker 03 And lob Molotov cocktails at them into the ocean. Never, they would say, with the intention of actually harming anybody.
9:14 Speaker 04 Sure.
9:15 Speaker 03 Basically, just to tell them to, to go away.
9:16 Speaker 04 But it's a 14 year old boy with Molotov cocktails.
9:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:19 Speaker 04 Yeah, okay.
9:19 Speaker 03 So Bates had kind of more ideas for the fort than just pirate radio. And as kind of semi as a joke, on his wife's birthday the following year in 1967, he declared the creation of the Principality of Sealand, what he described as a sovereign nation on this fort.
9:39 Speaker 04 Yes.
9:39 Speaker 03 Which he would be the prince of, his wife would be the princess, and his son would be another prince, and, and the family would be the royal family of the Principality of Sealand. Nobody really paid much attention to this. Everyone kind of thought it was a bit ridiculous. They sent in sort of attempts to basically register themselves as a country with other countries. The thing was that there is kind of a vague framework for what constitutes as a country.
10:06 Speaker 04 Yes, okay.
10:07 Speaker 03 Which was set by the Montevideo Convention. And it's pretty questionable exactly how much legal weight this convention has. But it's kind of used as sort of a four point checklist for is this a country or not?
10:21 Speaker 04 Okay.
10:21 Speaker 03 And the four point checklist goes, does it have a permanent population? Does it have a defined territory that is not part of another country? Does it have a government? And does it have the capacity to enter into relations with other states?
10:37 Speaker 04 So they've checked off quite a few of those.
10:39 Speaker 03 Kind of, they've kind of got a permanent population in that, you know, they're leaving a 14 year old boy on there.
10:45 Speaker 04 Yeah, exactly.
10:46 Speaker 03 And sometimes there are radio DJs broadcasting from the tower. They've got a government, it's a one person government, kind of. But they started sort of printing stamps and making banknotes just for fun. The question is whether this was a defined territory that is not part of another country, not part of another jurisdiction.
11:04 Speaker 04 Well, it's in international waters, right?
11:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, but you know, it was a thought that was placed there by the British Navy. So is that part of the UK was the question? So on the 6th of May, 1968, Michael, the 14 year old boy, did one of the things where he was firing guns and lobbing Molotov cocktails at people.
11:24 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:25 Speaker 03 And the British government decided they weren't entirely on board with the fact that this was happening. And they arrested Michael and Roy on firearms offences. They were taken to the mainland and put on trial. But the thing was, the judge in the trial said, before we actually have the trial, we need to establish jurisdiction. And after they heard from all the parties, they decided that the British government's jurisdiction did not extend to the fort.
11:56 Speaker 04 Wow.
11:57 Speaker 03 And so therefore there was no trial.
12:00 Speaker 04 Yeah.
12:00 Speaker 03 Because apparently there was no law that prohibited people from firing guns and lobbing Molotov cocktails off the edge of this fort in international territory.
12:12 Speaker 04 Wow, okay.
12:12 Speaker 03 And so that was a big tick for them, that they were basically saying, okay, look, we own this fort. We can, we can do what we like with it. They did apply to the United Nations and say, can we please be a member of the United Nations? A UN spokesperson responded with, the United Nations is an organisation of governments, not gun platforms. The Secretary General has a nut file for such applications.
12:34 Speaker 04 Fun, okay.
12:35 Speaker 03 So things on the fort got interesting over the next decade. The BBC created BBC Radio One, which is their equivalent of Triple J, basically. And so they were broadcasting legal rock music on the mainland and they poached a lot of the DJs from.
12:53 Speaker 04 From pirate radio. Oh, wow.
12:54 Speaker 03 Radio stations to come and be on Radio One and kind of that was the end of pirate radio. They also then subsequently allowed commercial broadcasting in the early nineteen seventies. And so commercial radio stations, legal commercial radio stations started propping up on the mainland. There was really no need for pirate radio. And so what is the point of this platform now? And how are they going to make any money out of it? And how are they going to keep it?
13:17 Speaker 04 Hmm.
13:18 Speaker 03 Above water, you might say. Ha ha.
13:19 Speaker 04 Very good.
13:20 Speaker 03 The Bates family, Patty and Michael, were very determined to hold on to it because they kind of saw it as this family project now. They spent the next decade trying to make the new nation more livable, even though the fact it had no electricity, no water, no communication with the outside world.
13:37 Speaker 04 No communication?
13:38 Speaker 03 No, I mean, it was, it was far enough off the coast that they didn't really have like good CB radio. They could communicate kind of over ham radio, but it was basically they communicated via trips on the boat to the mainland.
13:50 Speaker 04 Yeah, wow.
13:50 Speaker 03 And, you know, Michael.
13:53 Speaker 04 Poor Michael.
13:53 Speaker 03 Remembers being left on the platform for weeks on end.
13:56 Speaker 04 Oh, my God.
13:57 Speaker 03 To try and. Make it more livable. They sort of started to create, you know, kitchen spaces, living quarters in the two turrets and sort of making it a bit more survivable.
14:07 Speaker 04 Have you seen any like photos of the interior?
14:09 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, there's heaps of photos of what it looks like. It looks pretty horrible. It looks pretty dreadful.
14:13 Speaker 04 Okay.
14:13 Speaker 03 I mean, it looks like what it is, an abandoned naval facility.
14:16 Speaker 04 Yeah, I just can't get over Michael.
14:19 Speaker 03 Well, he was into it. He was into it.
14:22 Speaker 04 Okay.
14:23 Speaker 03 You know, it was kind of a thing that he did with his dad, you know?
14:25 Speaker 04 I guess so.
14:26 Speaker 03 And occasionally threw Molotov cocktails.
14:27 Speaker 04 Yeah, but then two weeks by himself.
14:30 Speaker 03 So in the mid nineteen seventies, a German fellow named Professor Alexander Achenbach became interested in the platform and started speaking to Roy about the whole thing. He was a con man.
14:43 Speaker 04 Uh huh.
14:44 Speaker 03 He was not a professor. He had a, you know, a string of pretty questionable business activities in his past. But he started producing slick brochures, sort of proposing an expansion of Sealand by building out additional platforms around the existing platform of Sealand, which by the way is the size of two tennis courts, roughly.
15:06 Speaker 04 Wow, okay.
15:07 Speaker 03 The size of the country is the size of two tennis courts. So he was gonna expand it so that they could have a golf course, that they could have oil refinery on there, hotels, a casino, all that kind of thing.
15:20 Speaker 04 Wow.
15:20 Speaker 03 They kind of weren't really going anywhere with it. And the Bates family were kind of like, you know, a bit skeptical about the whole thing. So Achenbach decided to launch a coup. Yeah.
15:32 Speaker 04 Okay.
15:32 Speaker 03 So Achenbach lured Roy, the dad, to Austria for a meeting, leaving Michael on the.
15:41 Speaker 04 Poor Michael.
15:43 Speaker 03 Leaving Michael on the platform again.
15:44 Speaker 04 I guess he's an adult by this point.
15:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, he's like twenty eight.
15:46 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:47 Speaker 03 Leaving Michael on the platform. While Roy was away. A helicopter approaches.
15:53 Speaker 04 Mm hmm.
15:53 Speaker 03 And it's Akinbuck's lawyer.
15:57 Speaker 04 Interesting.
15:58 Speaker 03 And Akinbuck's lawyer lands on the platform and says to Michael, oh, man, it's been quite a journey and, you know, rappelling down from a helicopter was pretty crazy. Can me and my friends who have come with me, you know, Akinbuck's team?
16:16 Speaker 04 Okay.
16:16 Speaker 03 Can we come and just hang out for a little bit and would that be all right? Michael's like, mm hmm, I'd much rather my dad was here. I don't know why you're here without him. And, you know, I thought this whole meeting was happening in Austria. I'd really rather it if he left.
16:30 Speaker 04 He's got good instincts. Come on, Michael.
16:32 Speaker 03 They went, look, can we have a whiskey before we go? So Michael goes off into the the bowels of the platform to the whiskey room.
16:40 Speaker 04 Okay, yeah.
16:41 Speaker 03 He goes into the room where they have all the whiskey. And the Germans who have landed there go after him, shut the door behind him and lock it.
16:50 Speaker 04 No.
16:51 Speaker 03 So he's locked in the whiskey room.
16:53 Speaker 04 Okay.
16:53 Speaker 03 They basically said, look, you've got two options. One, we're gonna lock you in here and you won't be able to get out until basically we figure out what to do with you. Or we would be happy to take you to the mainland, you know, basically just bugger off, get off the platform. Michael went, okay, fine, just take me to the mainland and we'll we'll figure out what we're gonna do.
17:12 Speaker 04 Yeah.
17:13 Speaker 03 So he gets dumped in Belgium, I think, without his passport.
17:17 Speaker 04 Oh.
17:17 Speaker 03 And he manages to find his way back to the UK and go back to like the house that the family owns. And Roy's there and he's like, um, uh, we got coup d'etat.
17:28 Speaker 04 Oh.
17:30 Speaker 03 And Roy and Michael decide that they're gonna take the platform back.
17:35 Speaker 04 Oh, my God, of course.
17:36 Speaker 03 Now, they know a guy who flies helicopters for the James Bond franchise.
17:42 Speaker 04 There's two James Bond connections. Okay.
17:44 Speaker 03 Look, to be honest with you, there, I think in the seventies, a pretty large proportion of the British arts industry was devoted to making James Bond movies.
17:53 Speaker 04 Sure, okay.
17:55 Speaker 03 I think they were a pretty big deal.
17:57 Speaker 04 Yeah.
17:57 Speaker 03 They get a lift to the platform. They approach the platform from downwind so that the people on the platform won't hear them coming.
18:08 Speaker 03 They drop a rope from the helicopter. Michael slides down. There is, one of the Germans is on the platform, but he's asleep on a chair.
18:17 Speaker 04 Okay.
18:18 Speaker 03 Michael slides down on a rope and drops to the ground on the platform. He drops a bit harder than he expected to and he kind of puts his hands down on the ground on the platform. And this leads to the shotgun in his hand going off, bang.
18:36 Speaker 04 Oh, okay.
18:37 Speaker 03 It's fine.
18:38 Speaker 04 Okay, okay.
18:39 Speaker 03 The shotgun just fires off into the sky. But the Germans who were on the platform are like, whoa, okay, these people are serious. We give up. We're, you know, platform's yours.
18:48 Speaker 04 Oh, okay.
18:49 Speaker 03 No blood. No blood was spilled. It was basically like, okay, you've surprised us on the platform. You've got a gun. You can have it back.
18:55 Speaker 04 That's it. I'm good. Okay.
18:57 Speaker 03 Michael and Roy decided to let everyone go except for the lawyer, Arkenbach's lawyer. They took him hostage on the platform.
19:03 Speaker 04 Oh, I was on their side, but I don't know about that.
19:05 Speaker 03 When I say they take him hostage, I don't think they tied him up. They were just like, you're here now until we can get Arkenbach to say sorry for, for what he did.
19:13 Speaker 04 Okay.
19:13 Speaker 03 But they've made it clear that he wasn't allowed to leave.
19:15 Speaker 04 Yeah.
19:15 Speaker 03 Now we have a situation where you have a German national being held on a unrecognized micro nation.
19:23 Speaker 04 Yes.
19:24 Speaker 03 The German government finds out about this. They call up the UK government and go, I believe that one of our citizens is being held hostage on a naval platform. The UK government basically went, ah, it's been made very clear to us that this is not our problem. Um, we would not like to get involved in this at all. Thank you very much. That nutbag out there can do what he likes.
19:47 Speaker 04 Yeah.
19:47 Speaker 03 It's got nothing to do with us. And so the Germans then send a member of the German diplomatic corps, a diplomat.
19:57 Speaker 04 Oh, wow.
19:58 Speaker 03 To Sealand to negotiate.
20:00 Speaker 04 Oh, my god.
20:00 Speaker 03 The release of the hostage. Now, what is the significance of this adere?
20:06 Speaker 04 It is the final point, the capacity to enter in relations with other countries.
20:10 Speaker 03 Yes.
20:11 Speaker 04 Oh, my god.
20:12 Speaker 03 So, so the Bates family considers this to be the final piece of the puzzle.
20:18 Speaker 04 That's amazing.
20:18 Speaker 03 Of finally making Sealand a legitimate country. They now have a permanent population, a defined territory that is not part of another country, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
20:30 Speaker 04 That's incredible.
20:31 Speaker 03 So there you go. Bibbidi boppidi boo. Now, to be clear, it's only them that thinks that.
20:36 Speaker 04 Yes.
20:36 Speaker 03 No other country has ever recognised Sealand. But Sealand does still exist.
20:42 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah.
20:42 Speaker 03 Roy died a little bit more than 10 years ago. Michael is now the prince of Sealand.
20:47 Speaker 04 Does he live there?
20:48 Speaker 03 No, he doesn't live there, but members of the family, there is still a permanent population. People do live on the thing because they've kind of been able to sort of make a little bit of money out of it, basically by selling joke titles, joke passports. You can pay money and be a lord of Sealand.
21:07 Speaker 04 Aha.
21:08 Speaker 03 And that kind of thing.
21:09 Speaker 04 Okay, how much money?
21:11 Speaker 03 I can't remember what it was, it was a bit too much for a joke.
21:13 Speaker 04 Too much for a joke, okay.
21:15 Speaker 03 Fast forward to 1997. Gianni Versace gets assassinated by a strange fellow.
21:21 Speaker 04 Yes.
21:22 Speaker 03 Andrew Cunahan, who had already murdered four other men. They go to Cunahan's house and they look in his possessions. They find a Sealand passport.
21:30 Speaker 04 Oh, wow.
21:32 Speaker 03 And they go, oh, what's this?
21:36 Speaker 04 Yeah.
21:38 Speaker 03 And the people on Sealand kind of went, oh, we don't want to be involved in that.
21:45 Speaker 04 Yeah.
21:46 Speaker 03 And so it's been kind of a tricky thing for them over the years.
21:49 Speaker 04 So have they stopped selling passports?
21:51 Speaker 03 They declared all passports at the time invalid and now they've wound back the passport business.
21:57 Speaker 04 Okay, good on them, that's good.
21:59 Speaker 03 Bit less funny than it used to be.
22:00 Speaker 04 Yes.
22:01 Speaker 03 But anyway, that is essentially the story of Sealand.
22:03 Speaker 04 That's incredible.
22:04 Speaker 03 And they're still bobbing along, although not technically bobbling, I suppose. They are stuck to the ground out there.
22:08 Speaker 04 No, that's amazing. Thank you for that.
22:10 Speaker 03 You're welcome.
22:10 Speaker 04 I'm glad I know more about Sealand than just that Pyro Bay tried to buy it.
22:13 Speaker 03 Yeah, there's a lot to it.
22:15 Speaker 04 Yeah.
22:23 Speaker 03 Well, and after all that, I've decided to declare the If You're Listening basement its own sovereign nation. We will be charging an excise on MP3 files leaving the nation, which means that you'll probably just have to pay a little bit for the podcast potentially. We'll be sending you a tax bill sometime in the next financial year. Next week, we're continuing our look at the tortured relationship between Israel and Lebanon, and why exactly this conflict has become the sticking point of the Iran War. I'll catch you then.
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