For background, we'll review the conventional water-based lifestyles like floating homes, sailboats, cruise ships, and oil platforms. You'll also learn about some of the other ways people have successfully leveraged international waters for political freedom, like the european pirate radio movement of the 60's and 70's. We'll describe some of the scores of colorful new-country projects proposed and attempted over the years. While the ideas are wide-ranging, including ships, reefs, spars, hexagonal cells, reeds, and tetrahedrons, they all share one thing in common - utter lack of success.