Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

months later.
The Apollo had not been in the Caribbean for long before she again began to arouse suspicions at
her various ports of call. She cruised from the Bahamas to the West Indies to the Leeward and
Windward Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and back again and rumours of illicit or clandestine
activity followed her as tenaciously as the seagulls. In Trinidad, a weekly tabloid newspaper
speculated that the ship was connected to the CIA and suggested that the crew was somehow
linked with the horrific Sharon Tate murders in Los Angeles. As the American Embassy drily cabled
to Washington: 'The controversial yacht Apollo seems to have worn out its welcome in Trinidad'.[12]
To those on board ship, it was obvious that a conspiracy was at work. The Captain, Bill Robertson,
explained that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was 'one of the top SMERSH guys', had been
bringing pressure to bear and threatening to cut foreign aid to any island that welcomed the
Apollo.[13] It made perfect sense to a Scientologist.
Courses were still being held on the ship for senior Scientologists and in June 1975, one of the
new students was Pam Kemp, Hubbard's old friend from Saint Hill days. She was shocked to see
how much he had aged. 'I saw this figure coming on board in a big hat and red-lined Navy Cloak
and I thought if I'm not mistaken that's LRH, although he was very slow and old looking. I went up to
him and said, "Hi, Ron." He looked through me like he didn't know who I was. I thought maybe he
was a little deaf so I went around another way and as he was coming towards me I said, "Hi, Ron.
How are you?" He didn't recognize me, didn't know who I was. I thought, how weird. Later I
discovered he probably didn't see me properly because he needed glasses, but would neverwear
them.'[14]
Not long afterwards, Hubbard suffered a minor stroke while the ship was in harbour in Curaçao. He
was rushed to the local hospital, kept in intensive care for two days and then transferred to a private
room, where he stayed for three weeks, with messengers on duty day and night outside his door.
'To keep him in the hospital,' said Kima Douglas, 'we had to bring food from the ship. He wouldn't
touch the hospital food, so we ferried every meal out in hot and cold boxes, ten miles each way.'
When he had recovered sufficiently to leave hospital, he moved into a cabana bungalow in the
grounds of the Curaçao Hilton to convalesce.
While he was there, he despatched an aide, Mark Schecter, to the United States on a top secret
mission. Schecter carried a suitcase full of money. His orders were to hand it over to another
Scientologist, Frankie Freedman, who had found a motel for rent in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Although only a handful of people were aware of it, the Sea Org's seafaring days were over.
1. Interview with Urquhart
2. Interview with Dincalci
3. Interview with Eltringham
4. Interview with Kima Douglas, Oakland, CA, Sept 1986
5. Interview with Jill Goodman, New York, March 1986
6. Interview with Doreen Gillham
7. Interview with Gerald Armstrong, Boston, February 1986
8. Interview with Tanya Burden, Boston, February 1986
9. L.R. Hubbard navy record
10. Interview with Kathy Cariotaki, San Diego, July 1986
11. Interview with Mrs Roberts
12. Los Angeles Times, 29 August 1978
13. Capt. Bill Roberts Debrief transcript, May 1982
14. Interview with Kemp