Most people tend to think of countries’ territory ending at their shorelines. But under international law, a nation’s jurisdiction usually stretches two hundred miles from its coasts (although various parts of its sovereignty peter out along the way, which is why Gomperts and her ships had to sail only twelve miles off the coast of Mexico, and Sealand had to be only three miles from Britain’s shores). As a result, the area under U.S. control is actually more sea (roughly 4.5 million square miles) than land (about 3.5 million square miles).
