Operation Atlantis is a real mind-blower
An independent nation with fixed, permanent geographic location or locations.
The paid New York Times obituary made no mention of Operation Atlantis. It focused, instead, on the man’s undeniable business acumen, helping grow his family’s humble soap business into one of the world’s leading dermatological pharmaceutical manufacturers. Stiefel Laboratories’ roots date back to Germany in the middle of the previous century. Ninety years later, it was resurrected in New York State, after Nazi control drove its founding family out.
Werner Stiefel remained at the company’s helm for second-half of the 20th century, until six years before his death in 2006. In 2009, the firm would be acquired by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline for $2.9 billion. In lieu of flowers, the death note read, donations should be made to The Werner K. Stiefel Scholarship Fund.
Nearly 40 years prior, energized by the words of Atlas Shrugged, the executive purchased the Sawyerkill, a non-descript, single-story motel in Saugerties – roughly two hours north of New York City and not far from a Stiefel Laboratories soap plant. Rechristened Atlantis I, it would serve as step one of three in the creation of a planned libertarian utopia. The same year saw the self-publication of The Story of Operation Atlantis. Released by the Atlantis Publishing Company under the anglicized pen name, Warren K. Stevens, the volume was designed to attract likeminded individuals to the cause – and, by extension, the motel.
Stiefel outlined the creation of an “independent nation with fixed, permanent geographic location or locations.” He added that, while the United States offered his family some liberatory respite from the Nazi-controlled German state it had fled, he could not foresee the libertarian utopia envisioned by Rand taking root within its borders.
The author added that the “logic is that we are here in Atlantis because we have concluded that it is hopeless to think in terms of meaningful fundamental reforms in the U.S. To dream of repealing laws like Social Security, federal income tax, and Medicare is just simply not facing up to reality.”
Fueled, in part, by his own deep pockets, Stiefel was able to attract a small but devoted following determined to help “test the hypothesis that a free, capitalist society can exist and flourish in today's world.”
Recounts early follower, Roy Halliday, “Mr. Stiefel showed me one of the rooms in the motel and offered to install a small refrigerator and electric range and rent it (the room) to me for $90 per month. My sheets and towels would be changed every week. The room was clean, air-conditioned, and only a 15-minute drive on a scenic, country road to my job at the IBM plant in Kingston. So I accepted the offer and became the second ‘immigrant’ to Atlantis.”
The following year, a trip to the Prickly Pear Cays in the Caribbean offered a promising location for a more permanent Atlantis than afforded by the Saugerties motel with the creation of "an artificial island as close to the shores of the U.S. as international law will permit and Uncle Sam will tolerate.”
$10,000 was offered for a location on which landfill could be used to form the foundation of the new society. The Anguillan government, on the other hand, was not particular fond of the project, ultimately refusing to sell. It would be another year before Stiefel was able to find another suitable location. With Silver Shoals Cay chosen as the eventual home for Atlantis III, the group set out to create Atlantis II – the ship that would deliver them there.
“Operation Atlantis is a real mind-blower, for they’re not just interested in a floating community, but an honest-to-god independent country,” Esquire wrote in September, clearly jazzed that a group was doing more than just dreaming of libertarian ideals. “They are reportedly well-financed, well-managed, and very serious. How are they going to do it? They’re going to build an island, baby, in the middle of the ocean.”
The recently-created Atlantis Development Corporation erected a geodesic dome next to the motel, under which construction of the Atlantis II began. Over the course of the following year, the 38-foot boat was constructed out of ferrocement. It set sail down the Hudson for the Caribbean in December 1971, only to run aground on the banks of the river at low tide. The impact set the boat on its side, knocking over a kerosene lamp that set its hull partial ablaze.
The determined group was able to right the ship and continued their journey to the Cays. In spite of the breaking of a propeller shaft somewhere off South Carolina, the ship eventually arrived its destination. After docking, it would remain in place until ultimately sinking at the hands of a hurricane. A new boat was acquired and operations were redirected to Haiti-owned Tortuga Island, where Stiefel purchased land to serve as a new base of operations. The group was, once again, driven away —this time by the Haitian government.
A final site was chosen, this time between Cuba and Honduras. Stiefel purchased an oil rig, only to abandon his vision of Atlantis altogether when it was destroyed by yet another hurricane.
Sources:
How to Start Your Own Country by Erwin S Strauss
Operation Atlantis and the Radical Libertarian Alliance: Observations of a Fly on the Wall https://web.archive.org/web/20020910220252/http://libertariannation.org/a/n030h2.html
Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap https://www.wired.com/2009/01/mf-seasteading/
Paid Notice: Deaths STIEFEL, WERNER K. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/classified/paid-notice-deaths-stiefel-werner-k.html