How Two Seasteaders Wound Up Marked For Death
Reason magazine|November 2019
If a tiny floating cottage brought down the wrath of the thai navy, is there any hope for stateless life at sea?
Brian Doherty
How Two Seasteaders Wound Up Marked For Death

There they were, sweethearts Chad and Nadia, bedding down in a cozy floating home more than 12 miles off the coast of Thailand. Like any other vacationing couple, they shot videos to share with friends online. They had a 360-degree oceanfront view, with calm, sparkling blue water stretching out as far as the eye could see. Popping champagne, they were delighted by the “thousand million stars” they felt they could see at night.

But the pleasure of those views of sea and stars had an unexpectedly high cost: In April, the Thai navy hit them with threats of arrest for a capital crime. That moment of rare communion with the setting sun, from a 6-square-meter octagonal hut attached to a 20-meter-tall spar anchored in the Andaman Sea, seriously threatened the sovereignty of Thailand—or so that nation claimed. At a likely cost of about $1 million, three Royal Thai Navy boats dragged the hut back to shore.

As the Bangkok Post reported, the Thai navy insisted that Chad and Nadia’s small floating part-time home violated Section 119 of the Criminal Code, which “concerns any acts that cause the country or parts of it to fall under the sovereignty of a foreign state or deterioration of the state’s independence.” Worse still: “It is punishable by death or life imprisonment.”

For Chad Elwartowski and his now-wife Nadia Summergirl (her chosen name; the Thai native was previously Supranee Thepdet), the problem wasn’t their tiny hut with the glorious view per se. It wasn’t really about the specific thing they did. The problem was the idea motivating the otherwise generally untroubling act of dwelling atop the ocean, something that the fishing boats they often saw from their floating home do every day. They wanted to be pioneers in an experiment combining political independence, self-sufficiency, space travel, and personal liberty.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2019 من Reason magazine.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2019 من Reason magazine.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من REASON MAGAZINE مشاهدة الكل
Gimme Shelter  - The U.S. confronts a growing homelessness problem. Does Miami have the answer?
Reason magazine

Gimme Shelter - The U.S. confronts a growing homelessness problem. Does Miami have the answer?

The U.S. confronts a growing homelessness problem. Does Miami have the answer?

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
AI Is Coming for Hollywood's Jobs
Reason magazine

AI Is Coming for Hollywood's Jobs

But so is everyone else.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 2024
AI Can Do Paperwork Doctors Hate
Reason magazine

AI Can Do Paperwork Doctors Hate

With help from AI, doctors can focus on patients.

time-read
4 mins  |
June 2024
Antitrust May Smother the Power of AI
Reason magazine

Antitrust May Smother the Power of AI

Left alone, AI could actually help small firms compete with tech giants.

time-read
3 mins  |
June 2024
A Brief, Biased History of the Culture Wars
Reason magazine

A Brief, Biased History of the Culture Wars

THE FIRST PAR AGR APH of the book jacket lays it out: “There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that people are too sensitive today, that nobody objected to the actions of actors, comedians, and filmmakers in the past.

time-read
5 mins  |
July 2024
FAMILIES NEED A VIBE SHIFT
Reason magazine

FAMILIES NEED A VIBE SHIFT

THE AUTHORS OF FOUR NEW BOOKSWITH 24 KIDS BETWEEN THEM-SAY THE AMERICAN FAMILY NEEDS A COURSE CORRECTION.

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
"The Past Is There To Teach Us What Can Happen'
Reason magazine

"The Past Is There To Teach Us What Can Happen'

Hardcore History's Dan Carlin on hero worship and moral assumptions in the study of the past

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
Cutting Off Israel
Reason magazine

Cutting Off Israel

ENDING U.S. AID WOULD GIVE WASHINGTON LESS LEVERAGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THAT’S WHY IT’S WORTH DOING.

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
WHAT CAUSED THE D.C.CRIME WAVE?
Reason magazine

WHAT CAUSED THE D.C.CRIME WAVE?

GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT, NOT SENTENCING REFORM OR SPARSE SOCIAL SPENDING, DESERVES THE BLAME.

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 2024
States Turn Their Backs on Criminal Justice Reform
Reason magazine

States Turn Their Backs on Criminal Justice Reform

IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to avoid the “strange bedfellows” cliché when reading about the criminal justice reform movement in the 2010s.

time-read
5 mins  |
July 2024