<nettime> The probable end of Sealand

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

"Sealand", a former gun platform on the North Sea just of the West coast 
of England, featured prominently in fantasies about independent 
micro-states (complete with passports and postage stamps). Somewhere in 
the mid-nineties there was an attempt to recycle it as 'data haven', 
Cryptonomicon style, but that floundered on the vagaries of Roy Bates, 
Sealand's self-styled 'king'. It seems now to have reached the end of its 
useless existence...

bwo Dave Boyce/ the Hippies list (some hippies seem to have actually been 
on Sealand...)
---------------
http://tinyurl.com/gajr9

Sealand in ruins after blaze
24 June 2006 | 09:21
	
	
CRAIG ROBINSON

A FORMER wartime fortress which is now a self-proclaimed independent state 
has been left devastated after a fierce blaze tore through the structure.

The so-called Principality of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of 
Felixstowe and Harwich, was evacuated at lunchtime yesterdayafter a 
generator caught fire.

Thames Coastguard, Harwich RNLI lifeboat, Felixstowe Coastguard rescue 
teams, firefighting tug Brightwell, the RAF rescue helicopter from 
Wattisham and 15 Suffolk based firefighters from the National Maritime 
Incident Response Group (MIRG) were all called into action to tackle the 
blaze.

One man, believed to be a security guard, was airlifted from the scene and 
taken to Ipswich Hospital with smoke inhalation but no one else was on the 
Second World War gun emplacement.

Emergency services were first alerted to the drama just after midday when 
eyewitnesses noticed huge clouds of black smoke billowing out of the 
concrete structure, which is owned by self-styled King Roy Bates.

(...)


(and this was Paul W.'s comment:

And for those who wonder why the HavenCo website is still up, in the big 
split up two or three years ago, all servers were moved into London, and 
the whole datahaven was really a scam.

I guess it makes Cryptonomicon just a little bit more special :)


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