Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

not, what mattered was being able to play a game that LRH had designed. If it was important to
him, I would do the best I could.'
The ruins of the Temple of Tenet at first proved difficult to trace, until Hubbard realized that his
recollection was based on ancient sailing instructions whereas he had selected the search area
using a modern chart. Once this obstacle had been overcome the ruins were soon found, an event
which caused a predictable stir on board the Avon River only marginally spoiled by the discovery
that the site was clearly marked as an ancient monument - it might have been more sensible to
locate the temple by looking at a guide book.
The fact that the temple was a known ruin also made it rather difficult for the Scientologists to begin
sweeping the area with their metal detectors, let alone starting to dig, without arousing the
suspicion of the locals. Although one group reported encountering what appeared to be the hidden
entrance and a surreptitious probe with a metal detector was positive, Hubbard decided merely to
note their findings and move on.
While the search parties wrote up detailed reports of everything they had found, the Avon River
headed south towards the coast of north Africa, to Tunis, where the ancient civilization of Carthage
flourished before the birth of Christ. Hubbard said he knew a Carthaginian priest who had hidden a
treasure trove of jewels and gold in a temple which he thought he could find. Moored in the harbour
of the Tunisian port of Bizerte, the Commodore briefed his eager search parties by making a clay
model of what he could recall of the topography around the temple; they were told to scour the
coastline for a 'matching' landscape. He was almost always waiting on the deck when the shore
parties returned, impatient to know what they had discovered. Sure enough, they found the site of
the temple just as he had described it, but erosion had destroyed the secret tunnel which led to
where the treasure was hidden. Hubbard went out to the site, confirmed that they had found the
right place and pointed out where the erosion had taken place.
Although they had not yet retrieved any treasure, there was not a man or woman on the mission
who was not encouraged by what they had discovered thus far. From Bizerte, the Avon River moved
along the coast to La Goulette, the outer harbour of Tunis, where an attempt was made to explore
the ruins of an underwater city. Their scuba equipment proved unequal to the task and Hubbard
mocked up another clay model of yet another temple site, which this time was found to be occupied
by a government office building.
While at La Goulette, Joe van Staden, the captain of the Avon River, offended the Commodore in
some way, was promptly dismissed and replaced by Hana Eltringham. 'I was working in the
between decks area,' she recalled, 'when LRH called me over and said, "You're going to be the
new Captain." I went completely numb; I was terrified. I can remember sitting at my desk with my
head in my hands muttering, "Oh my God, oh my God." As I sat there I suddenly became aware of
him standing in the doorway of his cabin beckoning to me. I got up and walked over to him. He had
an E-meter in one hand and he thrust the cans at me and said, "Hold these." I stood there in the
doorway while he was fiddling with the meter and then he said, "I want you to recall the last time
you were Captain."
'Through the confusion and fear I was experiencing, my first thought was that this was ridiculous.
Then I started to get vague impressions of a time in some past life when I was the Captain of a
ship and there was a storm at sea. He said, "Very good, very good" and asked me to go back
earlier and I got a very vivid flash of space ships and space travel. It was very real, not an imaginary
thing at all. I told him what I had seen, that I was on some space ship being called urgently to my
land base. We were going back as fast as we could when we were blown up in space by some