Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

The Good Ship Scientology
The Observer, xx August 1968
IF RON HUBBARD, founder and leader of the Scientologists, lives at all, then he is well and aboard
a rusting and singularly grubby ex-Irish Sea ferry undergoing repairs in the harbour here in Corfu.
The Royal Scot Man, no port of registration upon her stern, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, and the
initials LRH floridly painted on her black and white funnel, arrived here from Tunis a week ago. Her
owner, said his lieutenants, when they came ashore, was a millionaire named Hubbard, who was
also something of a philosopher. The Scot Man was a floating college where he taught that science
and love could achieve all. This an explanation the authorities here seem to have accepted happily.
For this week the Scot Man moved into harbour for the £25,000 worth of repairs, including
resurfacing of the decaying lower deck, building of cabins, and conversion of the sea-water ballast
tanks into fresh water ones to increase her range.
And now a few select "sightseers" come gaily ashore with written orders to "spread the instruction
of LRH" and expressing particular interest in the remoter parts of the island. But most of the 220
Scientologists never step ashore or pass through Greek passport control.
The largest national group is 'the Americans, followed by the British and South Africans. Many have
wives and children on board. All have been with the ship for several months.
Visitors are discouraged. When I applied to see Hubbard I was, after a few moments' hesitation,
hustled firmly down the gangway which is constantly guarded by an intercom-equipped
quartermaster and whatever crew happen to he in the vicinity. The few visitors who pass a careful
vetting must sign a visitors' book when arriving and leaving.
The captain of the ship is Hubbard himself. The "students," who, like the "officers" wear dark blue
shirts and trousers, with white cords around their necks, say they never see him. Some officers,
however, have said that they have frequent consultations with him upon written request. Certainly
written orders are issued daily in buff envelopes to officers, probably by Hubbard. All official
correspondence is on headed notepaper of the Hubbard Explorational Company Limited. No
address is given.
Where exactly Hubbard's quarters are on board is difficult to establish, but, in the middle of the
upper deck a corridor leads to what few cabins there are with a notice forbidding entry.
On the lower deck, which is even rustier and dirtier than the rest of the ship, there are two cars out
of sight in the stern, both registered in Britain and believed by some students to belong to Hubbard.
One is a Morris 1100, the other an American make.
On the starboard side of this deck rows of desks stretch along the promenade from bow to stern.
Here "officers" are engaged in feverish paperwork, and shouting to messengers. They seem
obsessed by paperwork, permits and memos. Even the messengers, before they graduated from
the nursery on the upper deck, had to put in formal applications and receive formal permission to
undertake "tasks" which would prove them worthy or otherwise of joining in the full life of the ship
as "students" .