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Koch flew to Limassol to join the ship on its maiden voyage under a new name, the MS Satoshi, named after the bitcoin creator. It should have been a moment of transcendence for Koch, a chance to overwrite the pod disaster. But chat transcripts and voice messages between Koch and Steyn indicate that Koch believed Thai authorities would somehow try to scuttle the venture. Thai agents had been sent to Cyprus to stop him, he mused to Steyn, after two trespassers were found at the dock. “I have to assume that they are assassins,” Koch said. “But if that is the case, I will invite them for a chat in the machine shop of the ship.” Later, he reported that an intruder had been detained in the ship’s brig.

“Was this guy part of the crew?” Steyn asked.

“No. Entered over the mooring lines,” Koch replied. “All on cam . . . ”

“The only way to deal with a threat like that is to eliminate it completely,” Steyn advised. “Do not play games with the scum. Get rid of him.”

A couple of days later, Koch sent an update: “Let him go. Was ex crew trying to steal. Normal burglary.”

Among seasteading enthusiasts, the excitement about the crypto ship was intense. A slew of promotional videos and a marketing website promised it would be for “everyone from digital nomads to YouTube influencers, start-up teams and established businesses”. Friedman took to Facebook, boosting Ocean Builders by name and adding: “So glad liberty activism has advanced from Guy Fawkes violence to peaceful exit!” He posted too soon.

Rather than Thai secret agents, the project was scuppered by international maritime law. The global cruise business is one of the most closely regulated industries on the planet. By the time Koch and his cohorts were halfway across the Atlantic, the reality that keeping the MS Satoshi shipshape and legally compliant would prove ruinously expensive had become apparent. Insurers were not keen on covering a floating crypto-trading venue, and the Panama Maritime Authority was reluctant to classify the MS Satoshi as a non-seagoing vessel, which might have reduced costs. Docking the ship at a port near the Panama Canal, the venture was abandoned and the MS Satoshi sold. It was a setback for the seasteading movement. But for Koch, it was yet another public relations disaster and humiliation that stoked his resentments.

By early 2021, Steyn had established himself in Phuket. Even before he’d landed on the island, known internationally for its hedonistic beach scene, it had become clear that the original brief was only of peripheral interest to Koch. His real obsession was senior members of the Thai navy, in particular Vice-Admiral Sittiporn Maskasem, the man most publicly associated with the impounding of the XLII pod.