Occupied in 1967 by Major Paddy Roy Bates and dubbed the Principality of Sealand, the former HM Fort Roughs had already seen life as a pirate radio broadcast site much like the Red Sands Maunsell Sea Fort featured in our documentary on London's pirate stations. In the forty-five years since its founding, however, Sealand has become known for much more than renegade broadcasts.

Unrecognized by any other country, Sealand lays beyond the boundary of England's territorial waters, which "Prince Roy" seized upon to legitimize his fledgling nation. In the last forty-five years, Bates's micronation drafted its own constitution, issued passports and currency. It also hosted armed standoffs with German mercenaries and sheltered an unregulated data haven for internet gambling operations. Virtually gutted by a devastating fire in 2006, a series of repairs have restored the platform to full function, and Sealand lingers on, home to just four residents.