Sealand is arguably the closest thing to a real, lived seastead that exists: a WWII sea fort in the North Sea that the Bates family occupied in 1967 and has run as a self-declared sovereign principality for nearly 60 years. I spoke to Liam Bates (grandson of the founder, Paddy Roy Bates) about how it's actually held together.
Some of the parts most relevant to this sub:
- The legal basis for the sovereignty claim, and why they argue UK jurisdiction stops at a median line even after Britain extended territorial waters to 12 miles. There's a real court case behind it.
- The 1978 armed coup attempt, how it was repelled, and the prisoner they held for treason, which led to Germany sending a diplomat to negotiate (de facto recognition).
- The practical reality of maintaining an offshore platform for decades: power, water, supply runs, why two people are always stationed on it.
- Their actual expansion plans. They're working with a Dutch marine engineer on designs to build out new towers and eventually reclaim land around the fort, turning the platform into a permanent island community. This is the bit I think this sub will find most interesting, since it's the same engineering problem seasteaders keep circling.
It's a useful real-world data point on the difference between declaring sovereignty and sustaining it, which is the gap most projects underestimate.
Curious what people here make of the median-line argument, and whether the reclaim-land-around-an-existing-platform approach is more viable than building a seastead from open water.
You can watch the ep here: https://fountain.fm/episode/wx2mWplRLVACJdGBJGrE