Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 18
Messengers of God
'It is possible that Commodore Hubbard and his wife . . . are philanthropists of some kind and/or
eccentrics, but if one does not accept this as an explanation, there has to be some other gimmick
involved in this operation. What this gimmick might be is unknown here, although people in
Casablanca have speculated variously from smuggling to drug traffic to a far-out religious cult.'
(Cable from US Consul General, Casablanca, to Washington, 26 September 1969)
• • • • •
At the time of her ignominious departure from Corfu, the Apollo informed the port authorities that
she would be making for Venice, information which was doubtless passed to the CIA and to the
Foreign Office in London, since both the United States and the United Kingdom were anxious to
keep track of the wily Commodore of the Sea Org. But once the ship was out of sight of the Greek
mainland, Hubbard ordered a change of course. The Apollo turned west towards Sardinia, where
she was rapidly re-fuelled and re-provisioned before heading for the Strait of Gibraltar and sailing
out of the Mediterranean.
For the next three years, the Apollo patrolled the eastern Atlantic, aimlessly sailing from port to port
at the Commodore's caprice and rarely stopping anywhere for longer than six weeks. She ventured
out into the Atlantic as far as the Azores and once put in to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, but most of
the time she criss-crossed a diamond shaped patch of ocean bordered by Casablanca, Madeira,
Lisbon and the Canaries, with no objective other than to stay on the move.
'LRH said we had to keep moving because there were so many people after him,' explained Ken
Urquhart, who was by then the Commodore's personal communicator. 'If they caught up with him
they would cause him so much trouble that he would be unable to continue his work, Scientology
would not get into the world and there would be social and economic chaos, if not a nuclear
holocaust.'[1]
US intelligence services were mystified by what Hubbard was up to and cables arriving in
Washington began speculating on a variety of illicit activities ranging from white slavery to drugrunning.
In September 1969, while the Apollo was in Casablanca, the local US consul cabled
Washington with an account of a visit to the ship. All concerned, he noted, have been 'perplexed by
the vagueness of the replies' to simple questions about the ship's activities. The consul had picked
up a brochure which was no more forthcoming, explaining that trainees on board were learning 'the
art and the culture of navigation, the theory of which, when applied, demonstrates a very useful
practice at sea'.
Since the ship was registered in Panama, the Panamanian consul tried his luck, but with no better
results. He found the ship 'in a very bad state of repair' and believed that 'the lives of the crew had
been in jeopardy' while the vessel was at sea. 'The Panamanian consul has tried unsuccessfully to
meet Commodore Hubbard, who has taken a suite at the El Mansour Hotel and has instructed the
hotel personnel to refuse all telephone calls.'[2]
In frequent communiqués from the ship to his faithful disciples, Hubbard expounded on the enemy
forces ranged against Scientology and elaborated on the 'international conspiracy' theory of which