SCIENTOLOGY FLAGSHIP SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100040026-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: August 29, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE APPEARED 29 August 1978 ON PAGE
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F1 '4-tsh-
mu Y alm 11D, ShrrA0uUdud!--d In
Vessel Was Focus of Mu'tu'al Suspici~n B~t
BT' ROBERT GILLETTE tance, who asked not to be identified.....'
srmnsrarew,vrr The State Department letter also !
On June 25,1971, a young Colorado j says that the same officer who alle-
woman named Susan Meister died in gedty threatened to "smear" Miss
an apparent suicide aboard the Apol- Meister told Galbraith-whom the of-
lo, the 3,280-ton flagship of the ficer had invited down from Casa-
Church of Scientology and for nearly ; blanca-that "his organization,
a decade the personal yacht of the backed by money and friends in high
church's founder, L,. Ron Hubbard. places, 'would cause a nosy vice con-
In mid-July that year, according to' sul severe problems"' and that in
State Department correspondence -Safi, where the ship was well liked,
obtained by The Times, Miss Meis- Accidents could easily happen to
ter's father traveled from Colorado to : people.
the Moroccan port of Safi, 125 miles
south of Casablanca, where the Apol-
lo was then moored, to inquire into
his daughter's death. Meister is said
to have questioned the explanation of
the death proferred by the ship's offi-
The Apollo's.. two ? senior officers
then filed a formal complaint with the
U.S. government, alleging that Vice
Consul Galbraith had threatened,
them by saying that he could "get the I
ship sunk. /. by the CL&' or have it'
cers, and indicated that he might seek I sabotaged "by. getting a couple of ?
an investigation of the Apollo. bottles of Coca-Cola into the (engine)
oil, or, even better, commercial diam-
YeIn tam according to a Nov. 11, and dust"
of State David M. Abehire to the Sen- contained in
-I ~~- -~--esttateate
ate Foreign Relations, Committee- . notarized statement 40
the Apollo's port captain threatened were a complete fabrication." '
in the presence of the American vice. have The incident lot Safi appears to j
consul from Casablanca, William J. tionship marked a w point a relof'
Galbraith, that "he had enough bet weenn the Church of
material. including compromising Scientology and American diplomatic
photographs of Miss Meister, to smear outposts abroad. that was generally
Mr. Meister first." characterized by mutual suspicion.
According to the Abshire letter, The church, for its part, suspected
"Mr. Hubbard was apparently aboard U.S. diplomats and intelligence oper-
the Apollo at the time of Mr. Meister's' atives of fomenting trouble for it
visit but declined to see him." Meister' around the world. Government offs-
was said to have left Morocco the d coals In turn expressed bewilderment
`
before at the sometimes eccentric behavior!
the threat was made. No such of the Apollo crew and wondered, in
smear occurred, and ac-
cording to a church acquaintance correspondence and cables to Wash-1
of.l ington, whether the ship might be a
Miss Meister's who has since. re cover for illicit- activities ran n i
nounced Scientology, any such threat'! from drug running to white slavey, g
would almost certainly have been an . rd?.
The 320-foot shi was
empty one. "There was no way that I p purchased i4
thing 4e mid-1960s and sold about 14
girl could have been involved in any-
. compromising. She was very; months ago, according to church
quiet, very nice,"' said the a spokesmen. Built in'~gg7 ' ad j
PP
itred For Release 2004/182 : i~iRD
' Church,
Government
served as a freighter and a ferry. Under the command of 1
"Commodore" Hubbard, as he ranked himself aboard the 14
ship , it became the headquarters and training vessel of his
"Sea Org, ' an elite management corps in the church.
But over the years!as.the Apollo plied a generally tri-1,
angular course from ports in Spain and Portugal, south to ;
Morocco, west to Madeira and back to the Iberian coast--'
the crew appears to have done Its utmost to obscure its re-
lationship with Scientology.
Sailing under Panamian registry, the ship's owner was
listed as the Operation. and Transport Corp., Ltd,, a Pana-
manian company. OTC, the crew consistently told skepti-'
cal press and local officialdom at its ports of call, was a.1
secular business management training firm whose clients
could not be divulged.
Adding to the aura of mystery, the ship transmitted cod-
ed radio messages to New York-and-points unknown and
established land bases in Casablanca "and Tangier,: cities
steeped in intrigue.
The Apollo appears to have.dore little to dispel the air of
mystery about it..
In September, 1969, soon after the OTC established a
land base at Tangier, the American consulate at Casablan-
"all cabled an account of, a visit aboard the ship, noting that
all concerned have been completely perplexed by the va-
gueness of the replies" to such questions as why the ship
was operated and What its crew was training to do.
An Apollo brochure was said to explain that some 109
trainees aboard were learning "the art and the culture of
navigation, the theory of which, when applied, demon-
strates a very useful practice at sea."
Although the Apollo was -registered in Panama and
owned by a Panamanian company, the Panamanian consul
general had no better luck in eliciting information. He
found, the U.S. cable said, that the Apollo was "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 general has tried unsuccessful
Iy to meet Commodore Hubbard, who has taken a suite at
the El Mansour Hotel and has instructed the hotel persona
nel to refuse all telephone calls." . ? . . "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!
pl p ' 3'n' has"a i1anea `}lave speculated variously fra
smuggling to drug traffic to a far-out religious cult." :..