The Principality of Sealand is an unrecognised entity, located on HM Fort Roughs, a former Second World War Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea 13 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk, England, United Kingdom.
Since 1967 the facility has been occupied by family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates, who claim that it is an independent sovereign state. Bates seized it from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station at the site. He established Sealand as a nation in 1975 with the writing of a constitution and establishment of other national symbols. Bates moved to mainland Essex when he became elderly, naming his son Michael regent. Bates died in 2012 at the age of 91.
While Sealand has been described as the world's smallest nation, or a micronation, Sealand is not currently officially recognised by any established sovereign state. Although Sealand's government claims it has been de facto recognised by the United Kingdom (after an English court ruled it did not have jurisdiction over Sealand as territorial water limitations were defined at the time) and Germany, neither action constitutes de jure recognition.
In 1943, during the Second World War, HM Fort Roughs was constructed by the United Kingdom as one of the Maunsell Forts, primarily for defense against German mine-laying aircraft that might be targeting the estuaries that were part of vital shipping lanes; it comprised a floating pontoon base with a superstructure of two hollow towers joined by a deck upon which other structures could be added. The fort was towed to a position above the Rough Sands sandbar, where its base was deliberately flooded to allow it to sink to its final resting place on the sandbar. The location chosen was approximately 7 nautical miles from the coast of Suffolk, outside the then three-mile territorial water claim of the United Kingdom and therefore in international waters. The facility (called Roughs Tower or HM Fort Roughs) was occupied by 150–300 Royal Navy personnel throughout World War II; not until well after the war, in 1956, were the last full-time personnel taken off HM Fort Roughs.