Sealand: The micronation carving its own path
This week on 60 Minutes, Jon Wertheim reported on Sealand, the tiny principality fueled by humor and determination. But first he had to get there.
Updated on: July 12, 2026 / 7:00 PM EDT / CBS News
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Jon Wertheim visited Sealand , the smallest area in the world to claim itself as a sovereign nation. Getting there—and staying overnight — was its own adventure.
A micronation in the extreme, Sealand has all the trappings of a country: a constitution, a government, a permanent population (of one), a defined space (a platform jutting from the sea roughly the length of two tennis courts) — even a rousing national anthem. A former British nautical fort during World War II, the principality sits about seven miles off the eastern coast of England.
It is run by the man who has named himself its prince: Michael Bates.
But to see what it was all about, Wertheim and the crew first had to get there.
"It's one of these places where you see where it is on a map, and you'd say, 'That looks reasonable,'" Wertheim said. "But this could have been in the South Pacific. It's really far."