Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

island of Corsica. Hubbard had shown a few favoured members of the crew, including Hana
Eltringham, several pages of handwritten and typed notes describing the existence and location of
the station in mountainous terrain to the north of the island. It occupied a huge cavern which could
only be entered by pressing a specific palm print (the crew had no doubt it was Hubbard's) against
a certain rock, which would cause a rock slab blocking the cave to slide away and instantly activate
the space station. Inside, there was an enormous mother ship and a fleet of smaller craft,
constructed from non-corrosive alloys as yet unknown to earthlings, and everything needed for their
operation, including fuel and supplies.
Sadly, the Corsican space station was to remain no more than the subject of thrilling rumours, for
towards the end of April an urgent radio message arrived from Mary Sue asking the Commodore to
return immediately to Valencia, where there was a 'flap' (the euphemism employed to describe any
clash between Scientologists and 'wogs'). Hubbard acquiesced, leaving the crew speculating
wildly about what might have happened at the space station. There was strong support for the view
that Ron was intending to use the 'mother ship' to escape from earth and continue his work
elsewhere, perhaps in a more rewarding environment. The Sea Org, it was hopefully suggested,
was perhaps nothing more than a step towards a 'Space Org'.
Such considerations had to be put aside for the time being, for Avon River ran into a series of
storms as she ploughed towards the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Hubbard's temper worsened
with the weather. One dark night, in a gale force wind, Hana became concerned that the ship was
being blown too close to the shore and dared to change course without asking the Commodore's
permission. As the old trawler turned, she began to buck and wallow. 'She was just coming round
nicely', Hana recollected, 'when there was this great bellow from LRH's cabin, which was under the
bridge. I heard his feet pounding up the companionway and then the bridge door burst open. He
stood there like a madman, with his hair all over the place, glared around and shouted, "What's
going on?" I almost leapt at him, grabbed him by both shoulders and told him as clearly as I could
what I had done, after which he began to calm down and stopped glaring at everyone like some
ferocious beast. It always struck me as odd that a man of his calibre would behave like that; I
expected him to be more God-like.'
Hubbard was further displeased, on arriving in Valencia, to discover that the 'flap' had been caused
by the port Captain of the Royal Scotman, who had consistently refused requests from the Spanish
port authorities to move the ship from the dock to a mole in the harbour. The situation had
deteriorated to such an extent that the Spaniards were threatening to tow the ship out to sea and
deny her re-entry. Hubbard sent a mission ashore to heal the rift and transferred six officers from
the Avon River to the Royal Scotman to report on how the ship was being run.
A few days later, the Royal Scotman dragged her anchor in the outer harbour as a storm began to
blow up. Hubbard heard what was happening over the radio on the Avon River. He grabbed the
nearest available officers, jumped into the barge and hurried across to the Royal Scotman, running
up on to the bridge to take command. The ship was still secured to the harbour wall by wire
hawsers which were under enormous pressure; if they snapped, nothing could prevent her being
swept on to the rocks. Hubbard managed to slip the hawsers and re-anchor the ship, but not
before her rudder had been damaged against the mole.
When the emergency was over, the furious Commodore demanded an 'ethics investigation' to find
out who had 'goofed' and meanwhile assigned the entire ship a 'condition of liability'. Since there
were so few people he could trust, he appointed Mary Sue to be the new Captain of Royal Scotman.
Her orders were to take the ship to Burriana, north of Valencia, for repairs and then to cruise up and
down the Spanish coast to train the crew. She was to stay at sea until both the crew was sufficiently