New Atlantis

~I first heard about the nation of New Atlantis from a geography quiz book titled Everything is Somewhere by Jack McClintock. The story of New Atlantis is one of adventure and excitement, of daring deeds and hard work, and like so many great endeavors, utter absurdity.

New Atlantis was founded on July 4th, 1964, by Leicester (pr: Lester) Hemingway, the younger brother of author Ernest Hemingway. Leicester, a used car salesman, felt overshadowed by his famous brother and decided that he deserved some attention from the world. As he told The Washington Post in an interview, "There’s no law that says you can’t start your own country." So that's exactly what he did, founding his micro-nation on a sandbar in then-international waters a few miles off the coast of Jamaica.

First he rented a small cargo ship, filled it with dirt, sailed to the sandbar, and dumped the dirt in the the water, repeating until the sandbar was shallow enough to walk on. Next, Leicester anchored an 8'x30' bamboo raft to an old Ford engine block, creating a raised platform. Half of this island Leicester claimed for the United States, and the other half (that's 120 square feet) for the independent nation of New Atlantis. Seven American voters (all selected by Leicester and granted dual-citizenship in New Atlantis) promptly voted him President, which got him an interview with the main newspaper of Kingston, Jamaica. In the interview, he vowed that New Atlantis “would be a peaceful power and would not threaten” other nations. He then submitted a flag (seen at top), Constitution, and Declaration of Independence to the United Nations, declaring, "We are a peaceful people."

As if Hemingway's sense of humor were not apparent enough, he named the national currency of New Atlantis the "scruple", saying that he thought the rich should have plenty of scruples. Examples of this currency (seen at left), look suspiciously like junk that might wash up on an island beach.

The main economic activity of the island was the production and sale of postage stamps (much like other micronations), the proceeds from which with Leicester hoped to finance an "International Marine Research Society" to protect fishing resources. Several interesting New Atlantis stamps were produced, including stamps honoring Winston Churchhill, the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment (seen at right), and Lyndon Johnson (the latter of which earned Hemingway a thank-you letter from the White House, addressing Hemingway as President). Unfortunately, the Universal Postal Union refused to accept his stamps.

Under normal circumstances, Leicester would have theoretically lost his U.S. citizenship by declaring himself the citizen of another country. However, he relied on a 19th-century law called the Guano Islands Act, which allowed Americans to claim unclaimed island territories for the United States if the island contained guano, which at the time (the 19th century) was used as fuel. An obscure section of the law allowed guano miners to hold dual citizenship if the area later came under the control of another nation. Fortunately for Leicester Hemingway, New Atlantis was replete with guano. He imported it himself.

Alas, the glorious nation of New Atlantis was not to survive for long. Only two short years after its founding, New Atlantis, like the Atlantis of old, sank beneath the waves during a tropical storm in 1966. Who knows what riches (in guano, stamps, and "scruples") even now wait for intrepid divers to recover and dazzle the world with their brilliance?

Luckily for us, before New Atlantis sank, Hemingway provided several cultural artifacts to Mary M. Hirth, a librarian for the University of Texas Humanities Research Center, which put them on display in 1965. The objects, including a letter from Hemingway to Ms. Hirth, still remain in the Center's "New Atlantis Collection".

Although New Atlantis was obviously a tongue-in-cheek endeavor and a publicity stunt for Leicester Hemingway, the process of its founding (international waters, support from nearby nations, citizenship transference, etc.) did serve as a prototype for later artificial island micronations, such as Minerva and Sealand. Last year, I read the novel "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson, in which an advanced society uses nanotechnology to grow and live on artificial islands. Appropriately, the islands are all given the designation of the nearest large city, followed by a slash and "Atlantis"; for example, Atlantis/Shanghai. Perhaps it will not be long before New Atlantis rises again.