Nations Founded on Fish, Plots and Bamboo

From the attempted-nation files of Erwin Strauss’ “How to Start Your Own Country” and Atlantic magazine’s “Ephemeral States”:

* Principality of Outer Baldonia. In 1948, business mogul Russell Arundel transformed several islands he owned off the coast of Nova Scotia into a nation based on the principles of drinking, swearing, gambling and lying about the size of fish. He also declared war on the Soviet Union, which denounced him in its press. No current information is available.

* Republic of New Atlantis. Ernest Hemingway’s younger brother, Leicester, founded this country in 1964 on an 8-foot-by-30-foot bamboo platform anchored off the coast of Jamaica. He printed postage stamps, including one honoring then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and banned income taxes. By 1973, Hemingway had abandoned New Atlantis.

* Granbia. During the 1970s, British postal worker Andrew Richardson declared his semi-detached dwelling in Liverpool to be the independent nation of Granbia. He named himself King Andrew I. A few years later, however, he apparently lost interest in the venture.

* Pendragon. A 1982 murder investigation in Northern California uncovered a weird plot to take over Marin County with laser beams and secede from the United States. The mastermind of the scheme was later sentenced to life in prison for his part in the murder.

* Oceana. This bungled bid to start a new country began with a plot to hijack nuclear-armed airplanes and ended with an attempt to raise cash by robbing a tavern. An off-duty sheriff having a drink foiled the clumsy holdup and the organizers went to jail.

* Hutt River Province. Australian rancher Leonard Casley declared independence for his 18,500-acre property in 1970 and began minting his own currency (including a coin commemorating Skylab’s 1979 crash into the Australian outback). He was occasionally fined by authorities, but paid the sums as an “international courtesy.” His coins reportedly have been accepted as far away as Hong Kong. No recent updates on the province are available.

* Arya. Organized by a Los Angeles man in 1981, this “pure Aryan blood” nation was originally supposed to occupy a top secret, uninhabited Pacific island. Arya later laid claim to 500,000 acres of Antarctica and applied for admission to the United Nations. The current status of Arya is unknown.

* Isle of the Roses. Italian engineering professor Giorgio Rosa’s experiment with democracy involved a tower he built in the Adriatic Sea, complete with bar, restaurant, post office and official language (Esperanto). Italian authorities at first ignored the nation, then invaded and dynamited it.