--- title: "Seasteading: The History and Future of Living on the Open Sea" description: "In 1974, Ken Deardorff made the last homesteading claim in the United States for a 50-acre parcel of land in Alaska. With westward expansion mostly complete, the era of free land in exchange for development was over, disappointing many who wanted to make their own way far from the restrictions and pressures of society.\n\nBut what if you could just… make your own land? After all, over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is empty because it's covered with water. Wouldn't that make an even better place to escape anything from taxes to pollution?\n\nPlenty of people have had the same idea. In fact, an entire non-profit was formed in 2008. Named The Seasteading Institute, it aims to promote the idea of permanent dwellings and communities at sea. The culmination of many efforts and experiments since the 60s, could autonomous habitable seasteads really be in our future?\n\n## An Old Idea Made New\n\nLike most big ideas, seasteading actually has precedents throughout history. Many cultures have been water-based at one time or another, and often for the same reasons.\n\nFor example, the Uru, an indigenous group in Bolivia, live on man-made islands floating on Lake Titicaca, which they have done for at least 500 years. When the Inca Empire began to grow and conquer much of the Andes Mountains, forcing subjects to pay taxes and provide slaves, they found the Uru quite defenseless and easy prey on the shores of the lake. However, the tribe developed a trick to avoid the Inca: building their own islands to live on out of the totora reeds that grow in the area.\n\nThe Inca are long gone, but the Uru remain. Over 1,000 of them still live on 120 islands of their own design. They get by on tourism as well as their traditional methods of food production and building based mostly on totora.\n\nA similar example are the Tankas, an ethnic group in Southern China. In Cantonese, *tank* means \"boat\" and *ka* \"people,\" so the name reflects the people's custom of living aboard Chinese junks along China's southern coast from Shanghai down to Hong Kong and Macau as well as along the Yangtze River. The history of the Tankas is less clear than that of the Uru, but it's theorized that they were pushed off the land by encroaching Han peasants. Throughout much of Chinese history, they were considered \"outcast\" by dynasties of the Han ethnic group, fitting with seasteading's theme of escaping society.\n\n## The Pirate's Life\n\nGiven the difficulty of constructing a seastead, not to mention getting supplies, growing food and maintaining social contact, few people would be likely to opt for seasteading all else being equal. However, the concept still attracts fanatics for one main reason: since it could be located in international waters, a seastead could—presumably—avoid the jurisdiction of any current nation-state and become its own autonomous community.\n\nWhile it might seem like this would primarily appeal to violent criminals looking to escape justice or wealthy individuals seeking a tax haven, the modern precursors to seasteading had a more innocuous purpose: music. As radio stations began filling the airwaves with pop music in the 60s and governments jumped in to regulate the practice, many DJs and radio enthusiasts discovered there was a loophole to licensing restrictions, frequency regulations and other red tape. If they were in international waters, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted.\n\nThe first broadcaster to take advantage of this was Radio Mercur, founded in 1958 by Peer Jansen and Ib Fogh. They sailed the ship *Cheeta Mercur* registered in Panama into the Øresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark where they broadcast pop music into those countries, directly threatening the two governments' monopolies on national radio. The Danish press began referring to the station as \"pirate radio,\" and the name stuck.\n\nThe concept really caught on in the UK—probably because of all the water around it. Radio Caroline became the first in 1964 when it started broadcasting from a ship off the coast of Essex. By 1967, 10 such stations had sprouted up around the British coast on ships and abandoned sea forts. With young DJs playing top 40 music, these stations provided content that BBC Radio did not, and the pirate radio audience soon grew to 15 million.\n\nOne of the most notorious historical events involving pirate radio was the surprise upset in the 1970 UK general election by the Conservative Party thanks to campaign support from Radio North Sea International, a pirate radio station run by Swiss company Mebo and operating off England's east coast near Clacton.\n\nMebo had originally attempted broadcasting off the coast of the Netherlands in English and German but found that they had more success with the English audience and so moved in that direction. However, shortly after arrival in April 1970, the British government, controlled by the Labour Party, started jamming them. Radio North Sea International responded by campaigning in favor of the Conservatives who had stated they would end the BBC's monopoly and allow commercial radio. They were joined by Ronan O'Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline, and the Conservatives won with 46.4 percent of the vote despite polls showing a 12.4 percent lead for Labour.\n\n## Flotilla of Faith\n\nAnother precursor to seasteading was a bit more unusual. Like most seasteading, escaping laws and taxes was a big motivator, but the ostensible purpose was serving as the base of operations for the top members of L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology: the Sea Organization, also known as Sea Org. While not an officially incorporated organization recognized by the United States or any other government, all important scientology officials are members of Sea Org, and David Miscavige, the sect's leader, holds the rank of captain.\n\nL. Ron Hubbard himself founded Sea Org in 1967, 13 years after founding Scientology. It consisted of three ships, *Diana*, *Athena* and *Apollo*, which operated in international waters where they trained the elite religious members who had made the billion-year pledge to the organization. These members were trained aboard the vessels in Scientology practices like \"auditing,\" wherein potential members have past-life incidents of trauma revealed to them so that they can be \"cleared.\"\n\nThe maritime nature of Sea Org allowed it to protect the church's leaders from legal trouble they were frequently running into. In addition to constant investigation and denial of tax-exempt status from the US Internal Revenue Service, the Church of Scientology also had issues with the governments of the UK, Australia and Rhodesia. L. Ron Hubbard confidentially told the organization that the governments of the world were going to collapse and that \"The Sea Org would survive and pick up the pieces.\"\n\nHubbard designed the organization as a navy with military ranks and insignia as well as strict codes of discipline. Those failing to meet these standards are sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, a set of workcamps with harsh conditions and segregation from the rest of Sea Org. This and other practices have caused many observers to label Sea Org a paramilitary organization.\n\nRegardless, Sea Org went back to land in 1975, though they did buy *Freewinds*, a ship that they dock in Curaçao and use for training and retreats, not quite a true seastead.\n\n## Seasteading Gets Violent\n\nThe idea of seasteading only became more politicized by the 70s. The first attempt at true seasteading in the sense of establishing a micronation outside the jurisdiction of a modern nation state was led by Paddy Roy Bates who founded the Principality of Sealand, naming himself Prince of Sealand, in 1967.\n\nBates started as a Pirate Radio Broadcaster, running Radio Essex from Knock John Tower. After getting fined by the British government, he moved to nearby Roughs Tower, an abandoned World War II naval sea fort just outside the United Kingdom's territorial waters. After the UK government banned his operation with the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act of 1967, he declared the tower an independent nation.\n\nSoon afterwards, Ronan O'Rahilly who you'll remember as the founder of Radio Caroline, unsuccessfully tried to storm Roughs Tower with a team of men and take it from Bates. The conflict prompted the Royal Navy to intervene, but they were immediately shot at for entering Sealand's territorial waters. They subsequently arrested Bates, but the court determined it indeed did not have jurisdiction as Sealand lay beyond British territory.\n\nBates claimed this as a de facto recognition of Sealand's sovereignty which was only further reinforced in 1978 when a group of Germans and Dutch attempted to invade the micronation. Bates won the battle and took the invaders as prisoners of war. Germany sent a diplomat to the UK for negotiations but was rebuffed. After all, Sealand was not the UK's problem. Instead, Germany had to negotiate with Sealand directly, which Bates added to his list of proof that Sealand was a real country.\n\nSealand has its own flag and constitution and issues passports, money and postage stamps. Bates even named his son Michael \"Prince Regent.\" Nevertheless, Bates more or less abandoned his micronation later in life, retiring to mainland England. Michael Bates also lives in Essex but still acts as Sealand's Head of State, though an extension of the UK's territorial waters in 1987 technically puts it within its control. In the past, Sealand has made money by providing a location for offshore internet hosting, but there haven't been any operations there since 2008. The current population of Sealand is two.\n\n## Seasteading as Philosophy\n\nAll of that history has culminated into a couple of modern seasteading proposals. The simplest was Blueseed, a Silicon Valley startup company. Like most seasteading, ancient and modern, the idea was to avoid government regulations by escaping to international waters. But in this case, it was to avoid one specific regulation: visa requirements.\n\nFounders Max Marty, Dario Mutabzija and Dan Dascalescu had the idea to remodel a cruise ship or barge and float it off the coast of California. The habitat would provide living and work space for around 1,000 people who could work for Silicon Valley companies or with them as entrepreneurs without the need for H1B visas to work in the United States, though it would still be close enough for a point-to-point internet connection using an undersea cable or microwave link. The company would make money by charging rent to the workers, rent that would often be covered by their employers, large Silicon Valley tech firms.\n\nBlueseed got a decent amount of seed funding, including $9 million from a private investor, but they estimated they would still need $18 million more. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a major figurehead in the seasteading movement, had originally said he would invest but ended up not doing so. The company ultimately couldn't raise enough money and put their project on hold in 2013.\n\nThiel has, however, invested in the Seasteading Institute, donating $500,000 in seed capital. The nonprofit was started in 2008 after libertarian activist and grandson of Milton Friedman Patri Friedman read an essay by Wayne Gramlich on the feasibility of building a seabased community in international waters.\n\nFor five years, the Seasteading institute held conferences and sought funding until in 2013, they launched the Floating City Project. As an intermediate step to full seasteads, the city would consist of a man-made island built within a nation's territorial waters to allow for easier access to people and resources. The Seasteading Institute hired Dutch engineering firm DeltaSync to perform an engineering study and signed a memorandum of understanding with the French Polynesian government to build the floating city in a protected lagoon.\n\nHowever, in 2018, the French Polynesian government claimed the memorandum had expired in 2017 and was no longer legal. They postponed the project indefinitely and cut ties with the Seasteading Institute. The organization tried to raise more funds in 2018 but didn't reach their goal of $3 million.\n\nThat said, the Seasteading Institute remains optimistic, especially because of recent success by the firm Ocean Builders, a company devoted to building livable pods on the ocean. In February 2019, they successfully launched a single-family seastead off the coast of Phuket, Thailand. Two months later, the Thai government claimed the pod threatened their sovereignty and seized it.\n\nOcean Builders didn't give up, though. They've since moved their operations to Puerto Lindo in Panama where they've established a factory to mass produce sea pods. Their main model has three floors and 833 square feet, or 73 square meters, of habitable space, enough for two residents. Though the pods jut 7.5 feet above the water, they are actually floating, thanks to air-filled steel tubes that stick down into the sea.\n\nThe Seasteading Institute hails Ocean Builders' seapods as the next step in seasteading and that much closer to their envisioned ecological lifestyle that escapes authoritarian and mismanaged governments and offers solutions to problems like growing populations and rising sea levels. You can make your mind up for yourself, though. Ocean Builders is currently selling their seapods for around $1 million, and if that's a bit steep, you can rent a four-night stay for two for $595. You won't be forming your own government anytime soon, but it's still always nice to get away on the open sea.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The concept of seasteading, or creating permanent dwellings at sea, has historical precedents.\n- The Seasteading Institute, founded in 2008, promotes the idea of autonomous communities in international waters.\n- Historical examples of seasteading include the Uru people of Bolivia and the Tankas of Southern China.\n- Pirate radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s used international waters to avoid regulations.\n- Modern seasteading proposals, like Blueseed and the Floating City Project, have faced funding and legal challenges.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is seasteading?\n\nSeasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings and communities at sea, often in international waters, to escape the jurisdiction of any current nation-state and become autonomous communities.\n\n### Who made the last homesteading claim in the United States?\n\nKen Deardorff made the last homesteading claim in the United States for a 50-acre parcel of land in Alaska in 1974.\n\n### What is The Seasteading Institute?\n\nThe Seasteading Institute is a non-profit organization formed in 2008 to promote the idea of permanent dwellings and communities at sea.\n\n### Who are the Uru people?\n\nThe Uru are an indigenous group in Bolivia who live on man-made islands floating on Lake Titicaca. They have done this for at least 500 years to avoid taxation and slavery by the Inca Empire.\n\n### What is the history of pirate radio?\n\nPirate radio began in the 1960s when DJs and radio enthusiasts discovered they could broadcast from international waters to avoid licensing restrictions and frequency regulations. Notable examples include Radio Mercur and Radio Caroline.\n\n### What is the Sea Organization (Sea Org)?\n\nThe Sea Organization, or Sea Org, is the top membership tier of the Church of Scientology. Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1967, it operated on ships in international waters to train elite members and avoid legal troubles.\n\n### What is the Principality of Sealand?\n\nThe Principality of Sealand is a micronation founded by Paddy Roy Bates in 1967 on an abandoned World War II naval sea fort. It declared independence from the UK and has its own flag, constitution, and issues passports and stamps.\n\n### What was the Blueseed project?\n\nBlueseed was a Silicon Valley startup that proposed remodeling a cruise ship or barge to float off the coast of California, providing living and work space for around 1,000 people to work for Silicon Valley companies without needing H1B visas.\n\n### What is Ocean Builders?\n\nOcean Builders is a company devoted to building livable pods on the ocean. They successfully launched a single-family seastead off the coast of Phuket, Thailand, in 2019 and have since moved operations to Puerto Lindo in Panama.\n\n### What is the Floating City Project?\n\nThe Floating City Project was an initiative by The Seasteading Institute to build a man-made island within a nation's territorial waters. It was planned to be built in French Polynesia but was postponed indefinitely in 2018.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original MegaProjects video: Seasteading](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCI5xjfPz0)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_United_Kingdom_general_election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_United_Kingdom_general_election)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_(Scientology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_(Scientology)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics)\n- [https://www.nps.gov/people/kenneth-deardorff.htm](https://www.nps.gov/people/kenneth-deardorff.htm)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca)\n- [https://oceanbuilders.com/](https://oceanbuilders.com/)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Roy_Bates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Roy_Bates)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patri_Friedman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patri_Friedman)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Luxembourg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Luxembourg)\n- [http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page6.html](http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page6.html)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mercur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mercur)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_North_Sea_International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_North_Sea_International)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Org)\n- [https://oceanbuilders.com/product/seapod-reservation/](https://oceanbuilders.com/product/seapod-reservation/)\n- [https://www.seasteading.org/what-did-the-first-seastead-achieve/](https://www.seasteading.org/what-did-the-first-seastead-achieve/)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka_people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka_people)\n- [https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220814-the-floating-homes-of-lake-titicaca](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220814-the-floating-homes-of-lake-titicaca)\n- [https://www.seasteading.org/](https://www.seasteading.org/)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasteading_Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasteading_Institute)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Patri_Friedman_Portrait.jpg) by Hannu Makarainen / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/seasteading.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/seasteading datePublished: 2026-06-16 dateModified: 2026-06-16 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/ajCI5xjfPz0/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 498f9b59b4abe5dae490c3b61f90edc55aea207022255eaa88a36fc25b757b54 tokens: 4951 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/seasteading.md.summary.md --- In 1974, Ken Deardorff made the last homesteading claim in the United States for a 50-acre parcel of land in Alaska. With westward expansion mostly complete, the era of free land in exchange for development was over, disappointing many who wanted to make their own way far from the restrictions and pressures of society. But what if you could just… make your own land? After all, over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is empty because it's covered with water. Wouldn't that make an even better place to escape anything from taxes to pollution? Plenty of people have had the same idea. In fact, an entire non-profit was formed in 2008. Named The Seasteading Institute, it aims to promote the idea of permanent dwellings and communities at sea. The culmination of many efforts and experiments since the 60s, could autonomous habitable seasteads really be in our future? ## An Old Idea Made New Like most big ideas, seasteading actually has precedents throughout history. Many cultures have been water-based at one time or another, and often for the same reasons. For example, the Uru, an indigenous group in Bolivia, live on man-made islands floating on Lake Titicaca, which they have done for at least 500 years. When the Inca Empire began to grow and conquer much of the Andes Mountains, forcing subjects to pay taxes and provide slaves, they found the Uru quite defenseless and easy prey on the shores of the lake. However, the tribe developed a trick to avoid the Inca: building their own islands to live on out of the totora reeds that grow in the area. The Inca are long gone, but the Uru remain. Over 1,000 of them still live on 120 islands of their own design. They get by on tourism as well as their traditional methods of food production and building based mostly on totora. A similar example are the Tankas, an ethnic group in Southern China. In Cantonese, *tank* means "boat" and *ka* "people," so the name reflects the people's custom of living aboard Chinese junks along China's southern coast from Shanghai down to Hong Kong and Macau as well as along the Yangtze River. The history of the Tankas is less clear than that of the Uru, but it's theorized that they were pushed off the land by encroaching Han peasants. Throughout much of Chinese history, they were considered "outcast" by dynasties of the Han ethnic group, fitting with seasteading's theme of escaping society. ## The Pirate's Life Given the difficulty of constructing a seastead, not to mention getting supplies, growing food and maintaining social contact, few people would be likely to opt for seasteading all else being equal. However, the concept still attracts fanatics for one main reason: since it could be located in international waters, a seastead could—presumably—avoid the jurisdiction of any current nation-state and become its own autonomous community. While it might seem like this would primarily appeal to violent criminals looking to escape justice or wealthy individuals seeking a tax haven, the modern precursors to seasteading had a more innocuous purpose: music. As radio stations began filling the airwaves with pop music in the 60s and governments jumped in to regulate the practice, many DJs and radio enthusiasts discovered there was a loophole to licensing restrictions, frequency regulations and other red tape. If they were in international waters, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted. The first broadcaster to take advantage of this was Radio Mercur, founded in 1958 by Peer Jansen and Ib Fogh. They sailed the ship *Cheeta Mercur* registered in Panama into the Øresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark where they broadcast pop music into those countries, directly threatening the two governments' monopolies on national radio. The Danish press began referring to the station as "pirate radio," and the name stuck. The concept really caught on in the UK—probably because of all the water around it. Radio Caroline became the first in 1964 when it started broadcasting from a ship off the coast of Essex. By 1967, 10 such stations had sprouted up around the British coast on ships and abandoned sea forts. With young DJs playing top 40 music, these stations provided content that BBC Radio did not, and the pirate radio audience soon grew to 15 million. One of the most notorious historical events involving pirate radio was the surprise upset in the 1970 UK general election by the Conservative Party thanks to campaign support from Radio North Sea International, a pirate radio station run by Swiss company Mebo and operating off England's east coast near Clacton. Mebo had originally attempted broadcasting off the coast of the Netherlands in English and German but found that they had more success with the English audience and so moved in that direction. However, shortly after arrival in April 1970, the British government, controlled by the Labour Party, started jamming them. Radio North Sea International responded by campaigning in favor of the Conservatives who had stated they would end the BBC's monopoly and allow commercial radio. They were joined by Ronan O'Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline, and the Conservatives won with 46.4 percent of the vote despite polls showing a 12.4 percent lead for Labour. ## Flotilla of Faith Another precursor to seasteading was a bit more unusual. Like most seasteading, escaping laws and taxes was a big motivator, but the ostensible purpose was serving as the base of operations for the top members of L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology: the Sea Organization, also known as Sea Org. While not an officially incorporated organization recognized by the United States or any other government, all important scientology officials are members of Sea Org, and David Miscavige, the sect's leader, holds the rank of captain. L. Ron Hubbard himself founded Sea Org in 1967, 13 years after founding Scientology. It consisted of three ships, *Diana*, *Athena* and *Apollo*, which operated in international waters where they trained the elite religious members who had made the billion-year pledge to the organization. These members were trained aboard the vessels in Scientology practices like "auditing," wherein potential members have past-life incidents of trauma revealed to them so that they can be "cleared." The maritime nature of Sea Org allowed it to protect the church's leaders from legal trouble they were frequently running into. In addition to constant investigation and denial of tax-exempt status from the US Internal Revenue Service, the Church of Scientology also had issues with the governments of the UK, Australia and Rhodesia. L. Ron Hubbard confidentially told the organization that the governments of the world were going to collapse and that "The Sea Org would survive and pick up the pieces." Hubbard designed the organization as a navy with military ranks and insignia as well as strict codes of discipline. Those failing to meet these standards are sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, a set of workcamps with harsh conditions and segregation from the rest of Sea Org. This and other practices have caused many observers to label Sea Org a paramilitary organization. Regardless, Sea Org went back to land in 1975, though they did buy *Freewinds*, a ship that they dock in Curaçao and use for training and retreats, not quite a true seastead. ## Seasteading Gets Violent The idea of seasteading only became more politicized by the 70s. The first attempt at true seasteading in the sense of establishing a micronation outside the jurisdiction of a modern nation state was led by Paddy Roy Bates who founded the Principality of Sealand, naming himself Prince of Sealand, in 1967. Bates started as a Pirate Radio Broadcaster, running Radio Essex from Knock John Tower. After getting fined by the British government, he moved to nearby Roughs Tower, an abandoned World War II naval sea fort just outside the United Kingdom's territorial waters. After the UK government banned his operation with the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act of 1967, he declared the tower an independent nation. Soon afterwards, Ronan O'Rahilly who you'll remember as the founder of Radio Caroline, unsuccessfully tried to storm Roughs Tower with a team of men and take it from Bates. The conflict prompted the Royal Navy to intervene, but they were immediately shot at for entering Sealand's territorial waters. They subsequently arrested Bates, but the court determined it indeed did not have jurisdiction as Sealand lay beyond British territory. Bates claimed this as a de facto recognition of Sealand's sovereignty which was only further reinforced in 1978 when a group of Germans and Dutch attempted to invade the micronation. Bates won the battle and took the invaders as prisoners of war. Germany sent a diplomat to the UK for negotiations but was rebuffed. After all, Sealand was not the UK's problem. Instead, Germany had to negotiate with Sealand directly, which Bates added to his list of proof that Sealand was a real country. Sealand has its own flag and constitution and issues passports, money and postage stamps. Bates even named his son Michael "Prince Regent." Nevertheless, Bates more or less abandoned his micronation later in life, retiring to mainland England. Michael Bates also lives in Essex but still acts as Sealand's Head of State, though an extension of the UK's territorial waters in 1987 technically puts it within its control. In the past, Sealand has made money by providing a location for offshore internet hosting, but there haven't been any operations there since 2008. The current population of Sealand is two. ## Seasteading as Philosophy All of that history has culminated into a couple of modern seasteading proposals. The simplest was Blueseed, a Silicon Valley startup company. Like most seasteading, ancient and modern, the idea was to avoid government regulations by escaping to international waters. But in this case, it was to avoid one specific regulation: visa requirements. Founders Max Marty, Dario Mutabzija and Dan Dascalescu had the idea to remodel a cruise ship or barge and float it off the coast of California. The habitat would provide living and work space for around 1,000 people who could work for Silicon Valley companies or with them as entrepreneurs without the need for H1B visas to work in the United States, though it would still be close enough for a point-to-point internet connection using an undersea cable or microwave link. The company would make money by charging rent to the workers, rent that would often be covered by their employers, large Silicon Valley tech firms. Blueseed got a decent amount of seed funding, including $9 million from a private investor, but they estimated they would still need $18 million more. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a major figurehead in the seasteading movement, had originally said he would invest but ended up not doing so. The company ultimately couldn't raise enough money and put their project on hold in 2013. Thiel has, however, invested in the Seasteading Institute, donating $500,000 in seed capital. The nonprofit was started in 2008 after libertarian activist and grandson of Milton Friedman Patri Friedman read an essay by Wayne Gramlich on the feasibility of building a seabased community in international waters. For five years, the Seasteading institute held conferences and sought funding until in 2013, they launched the Floating City Project. As an intermediate step to full seasteads, the city would consist of a man-made island built within a nation's territorial waters to allow for easier access to people and resources. The Seasteading Institute hired Dutch engineering firm DeltaSync to perform an engineering study and signed a memorandum of understanding with the French Polynesian government to build the floating city in a protected lagoon. However, in 2018, the French Polynesian government claimed the memorandum had expired in 2017 and was no longer legal. They postponed the project indefinitely and cut ties with the Seasteading Institute. The organization tried to raise more funds in 2018 but didn't reach their goal of $3 million. That said, the Seasteading Institute remains optimistic, especially because of recent success by the firm Ocean Builders, a company devoted to building livable pods on the ocean. In February 2019, they successfully launched a single-family seastead off the coast of Phuket, Thailand. Two months later, the Thai government claimed the pod threatened their sovereignty and seized it. Ocean Builders didn't give up, though. They've since moved their operations to Puerto Lindo in Panama where they've established a factory to mass produce sea pods. Their main model has three floors and 833 square feet, or 73 square meters, of habitable space, enough for two residents. Though the pods jut 7.5 feet above the water, they are actually floating, thanks to air-filled steel tubes that stick down into the sea. The Seasteading Institute hails Ocean Builders' seapods as the next step in seasteading and that much closer to their envisioned ecological lifestyle that escapes authoritarian and mismanaged governments and offers solutions to problems like growing populations and rising sea levels. You can make your mind up for yourself, though. Ocean Builders is currently selling their seapods for around $1 million, and if that's a bit steep, you can rent a four-night stay for two for $595. You won't be forming your own government anytime soon, but it's still always nice to get away on the open sea. ## Key Takeaways - The concept of seasteading, or creating permanent dwellings at sea, has historical precedents. - The Seasteading Institute, founded in 2008, promotes the idea of autonomous communities in international waters. - Historical examples of seasteading include the Uru people of Bolivia and the Tankas of Southern China. - Pirate radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s used international waters to avoid regulations. - Modern seasteading proposals, like Blueseed and the Floating City Project, have faced funding and legal challenges. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is seasteading? Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings and communities at sea, often in international waters, to escape the jurisdiction of any current nation-state and become autonomous communities. ### Who made the last homesteading claim in the United States? Ken Deardorff made the last homesteading claim in the United States for a 50-acre parcel of land in Alaska in 1974. ### What is The Seasteading Institute? The Seasteading Institute is a non-profit organization formed in 2008 to promote the idea of permanent dwellings and communities at sea. ### Who are the Uru people? The Uru are an indigenous group in Bolivia who live on man-made islands floating on Lake Titicaca. They have done this for at least 500 years to avoid taxation and slavery by the Inca Empire. ### What is the history of pirate radio? Pirate radio began in the 1960s when DJs and radio enthusiasts discovered they could broadcast from international waters to avoid licensing restrictions and frequency regulations. Notable examples include Radio Mercur and Radio Caroline. ### What is the Sea Organization (Sea Org)? The Sea Organization, or Sea Org, is the top membership tier of the Church of Scientology. Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1967, it operated on ships in international waters to train elite members and avoid legal troubles. ### What is the Principality of Sealand? The Principality of Sealand is a micronation founded by Paddy Roy Bates in 1967 on an abandoned World War II naval sea fort. It declared independence from the UK and has its own flag, constitution, and issues passports and stamps. ### What was the Blueseed project? Blueseed was a Silicon Valley startup that proposed remodeling a cruise ship or barge to float off the coast of California, providing living and work space for around 1,000 people to work for Silicon Valley companies without needing H1B visas. ### What is Ocean Builders? Ocean Builders is a company devoted to building livable pods on the ocean. They successfully launched a single-family seastead off the coast of Phuket, Thailand, in 2019 and have since moved operations to Puerto Lindo in Panama. ### What is the Floating City Project? The Floating City Project was an initiative by The Seasteading Institute to build a man-made island within a nation's territorial waters. It was planned to be built in French Polynesia but was postponed indefinitely in 2018. ## Sources - [Original MegaProjects video: Seasteading](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCI5xjfPz0) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_United_Kingdom_general_election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_United_Kingdom_general_election) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_(Scientology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_(Scientology) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics) - [https://www.nps.gov/people/kenneth-deardorff.htm](https://www.nps.gov/people/kenneth-deardorff.htm) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca) - [https://oceanbuilders.com/](https://oceanbuilders.com/) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Roy_Bates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Roy_Bates) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patri_Friedman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patri_Friedman) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Luxembourg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Luxembourg) - [http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page6.html](http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page6.html) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mercur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mercur) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_North_Sea_International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_North_Sea_International) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Org) - [https://oceanbuilders.com/product/seapod-reservation/](https://oceanbuilders.com/product/seapod-reservation/) - [https://www.seasteading.org/what-did-the-first-seastead-achieve/](https://www.seasteading.org/what-did-the-first-seastead-achieve/) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka_people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka_people) - [https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220814-the-floating-homes-of-lake-titicaca](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220814-the-floating-homes-of-lake-titicaca) - [https://www.seasteading.org/](https://www.seasteading.org/) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasteading_Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasteading_Institute) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Patri_Friedman_Portrait.jpg) by Hannu Makarainen / openverse, by-sa. ## Related Coverage