Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

everyone on the ship was a dedicated Scientologist committed to the concept of past lives and
immortality. It was not in the least improbable to Mary Maren, or any of the others who listened to
Hubbard talking on the deck of the Royal Scotman on those warm Spanish nights, that he had
been a Marcabian racing driver.
One of the recurring features of Hubbard's past lives on this planet was a penchant for secreting
his worldly goods underground and one of the frustrations of his present life was his inability to find
them. He was deeply disappointed that his cruises round the Canary Islands in the Enchanter had
not resulted in replacing the schooner's ballast with gold bars, but now he had more time, more
ships and more personnel at his disposal and in February 1968, he asked for volunteers to
accompany him on a special mission on the Avon River.
Amos Jessup was among the first to step forward. 'He didn't tell us ahead of time what we were
going to do, but it didn't matter to me, I'd have followed him through the gates of Hell if I had to. I
was glad to do anything for him because I felt that what he had done to help others was so great an
accomplishment he deserved whatever help I could offer. People felt he was a miracle worker,
someone who had demonstrated a far higher level of competence than anything we could aspire
to. It was as exciting and stimulating as hell to be with him. You had to be on your toes, put out your
maximum effort, but it was always very refreshing and therapeutic.'[2]
Hubbard accepted thirty-five volunteers for the mission and for the next few weeks conducted daily
training sessions on the deck of the Avon River, often watched by envious students hanging over
the rails of the Royal Scotman moored alongside in Valencia harbour. With a stop watch in one
hand, the Commodore put the crew through innumerable drills to rescue men overboard, fight fires,
handle lines, launch and retrieve small boats and repel boarders - he told them he was worried
about piracy in the Mediterranean and wanted to be sure they would not panic if that circumstance
arrived.
At the beginning of March the Avon River set sail, leaving the Royal Scotman seething with
speculation about the nature of her mission. She headed east, back across the Mediterranean
once again, and anchored in a sheltered bay off Cap Carbonara, on the south-east coast of
Sardinia, where Hubbard mustered the crew on the well deck for a briefing. Standing on a hatch
cover so that he could be seen, he told them he was on the threshold of achieving an ambition he
had cherished for centuries in earlier lives. This was the first lifetime he had been able to build an
organization with sufficient resources, money and manpower to tackle the project they were about
to undertake. He had accumulated vast wealth in previous lives, he explained, and had buried it in
strategic places. The purpose of their present mission was to locate this buried treasure and
retrieve it, either with, or without, the co-operation of the authorities.
Several members of the crew were unable to suppress gasps of excitement at this prospect and
he smiled broadly before continuing. To the best of his recollection, when he was the Commander
of a fleet of war galleys two thousand years ago, there was a temple somewhere on the coast
close to where they were anchored. It was called the Temple of Tenet and the high priestess was a
charming lady who, he said with a wink, had 'warmed the hearts of sailors'. His intention was to put
several parties ashore next morning to search for the ruins of the temple and the secret entrance
where he had buried a cache of gold plates and goblets.
'It was an electrifying idea,' said Jessup. 'We all thought it was high adventure. Here was this guy
who had cracked through the age-old mystery of the human condition, had dug into, and uncovered,
every aspect of human shortcoming, now broaching into a new area, going to sea with a bunch of
people in the Mediterranean and digging up buried treasure. It didn't matter to me if it was true or