The Principality of Outer Baldonia is a now defunct micronation whose territorial pretensions comprised the roughly 4 acres (16,000 m2) of Outer Bald Tusket Island, the southernmost of the Tusket Islands, 8 nautical miles (15 km) off the southern tip of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Founded in 1948 by [Pepsi-Cola sales executive] Russell Arundel, [it was] endowed with a charter, flag, and organized military. Coinage and passports were also issued.
Stumbling across the island while fishing (recreationally, not commercially) for tuna, Arundel soon after arranged to purchase the island for $750 and built a stone fishing lodge about 30 by 20 feet in size.
While drinking (naturally) he and some friends conceived of and elaborated on the details of what would become Outer Baldonia.
There are some great details here, too – for example, the currency was referred to as “the Tunar” in honor of the tuna fishing that had led Arundel to the island.
All citizens of the Principality who caught a Bluefin Tuna and paid a $50 fee were accorded the rank of Prince. The ranks of the peerage were limited to 100.
While never legally recognized by any government other than that of Nova Scotia, Outer Baldonia managed to acquire a certain amount of prestige on the international stage.
Simply by listing his law office’s phone number as that of the Consulate of Outer Baldonia in the telephone registry of Washington, D.C., Prince Russell received many invitations to gatherings which he attended in his diplomatic garb, which some say was decorated largely with sardine cans and bottle caps.
Outer Baldonia was even invited to apply for membership to the then nascent United Nations.
The Declaration of Independence of the Charter of Outer Baldonia is another gem:
“That fishermen are a race alone. That fishermen are endowed with the following inalienable rights: The right to lie and be believed. The right of freedom from question, nagging, shaving, interruption, women, taxes, politics, war, monologues, care and inhibitions. The right to applause, vanity, flattery, praise and self-inflation. The right to swear, lie, drink, gamble and silence.”
The rest of the charter covered tax policy, citizenship codes of conduct, military structure, trade and industrial policies.
Women were banned from the island (though, strangely, not citizenship), and the stated primary business of the island was (of course) fishing, but also the export of empty rum and beer bottles.
Then came war with the Soviet Union. Seriously. Kind of.
A communist writer in the Soviet Union published an attack upon the content of the Charter, which she claimed dehumanised and decivilized the citizenry in the USSR state publication Literaturnaya Gazeta
When the Soviet Government declined an invitation to visit and observe the wholesomeness of the micronation’s way of life with an eye to retracting its insults, a declaration of war was issued on March 9, 1953.
Yes, Outer Baldonia actually had a navy in the form of somewhere between twenty and a hundred fishing and sport vessels.
The reaction of the Soviet Union was swift and in the form of a series of press condemnations, as the communist state clearly had no desire to challenge the Baldonian Navy.
In the end, the inside joke of Outer Baldonia’s diplomatic representatives fell before the onslaught of investigative reporting as to the exact nature of Outer Baldonia. In 1973, the island was finally sold to Russel Arundel for the price of $1 (Canadian) to the Nova Scotia Bird Society, whereupon the island was designated a bird sanctuary. Outside of tern rookery breeding season, it is open to the public.
Top photo via Teddeon.
Other images via Wizzley. Map from Google Maps.
Quoted text via Wikipedia.
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