SCIENTOLOGY FLAGSHIP SHROUDED IN MYSTERY VESSEL WAS FOCUS OF MUTUAL SUSPICION BETWEEN CHURCH, GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410027-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: August 29, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release %D;/RC1~, tis Cgl fi?@PP88-01
ARTICLE APPEARED 29 August 1978
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Vessel Was Focus of Mutual Suspicion BQfwe'en ;Chur+cM,i
Government
BY ROBERT GILLETTE
Times Staff WWW
On June 25, 1971, a young Colorado
woman named Susan Meister died in
an apparent suicide aboard the Apol-
lo, the .3,280-ton flagship of the
Church of Scientology and for nearly
a decade the personal yacht of the
church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
' In mid-July that year, according to'
State Department correspondence
obtained by The Times. Miss Meis-
ter's father traveled from Colorado to
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-
cers, and indicated that he might seek
an investigation of the Apollo.
In turn-according to a Nov. 11,
1971, letter from Assistant Secretary
of State David M. Abshire to the Sen-
Foreign Relations, Committee-
ate
the Apollo's port captain threatened
in the presence of the American vice.
consul from Casablanca, William J.
Galbraith, that "he had enough
material, including compromising
photographs of Miss Meister, to smear
Mr. Meister first."
According to the Abshire letter,.
"Mr. Hubbard was apparently aboard
the Apollo at the time of Mr. Meister's
visit but declined to see him." Meister
was said to have left Morocco the day
before the threat was made.
No such smear occurred, 'and ac-
cording to a church acquaintance of.I
Miss Meister's who has since. re
nounced Scientology, any such threat'
would almost certainly have been. an
empty one. "There was no way that
girl could have been involved in any-
thing compromising. She was very
quiet, very nice, said the acquain-
tance, who asked not to be identified.
The State Department letter also
says that the same offices who alle-
gedly threatened to "smear" Miss
Meister told Galbraith-whom the of-
ficer had invited down from Casa-i
blanca-that "his organization,
backed by money and friends in high
places, 'would cause a nosy vice con-
sul severe problems"' and that in
Safi, where the ship was well liked,
"'Accidents could easily happen to
people.'? '
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
ship sunk ..f. by the CIA" or have it
sabotaged "by. getting a couple of
bottles of Coca-Cola into the (engine)
oil, or, even better, commercial diam-
ond dust." . '
Galbraith said these allegations,
contained in a notarized statement.
were a "complete fabrication." '
The incident at. Safi appears to
have marked a low point in a rela-.
tionship _ between the Church of
Scientology and American diplomatic
outposts abroad. that was generally
characterized by mutual suspicion.
. The church, for its par, suspected
U.S. diplomats and intelligence oper-
atives of fomenting trouble for it
around the world. Government offi-
cials in turn expressed bewilderment
at the sometimes eccentric behavior
of the Apollo crew and wondered, in
correspondence and cables to Wash-
ington, whether the ship might be a
cover for illicit. activities ranging
.from drug running to white slavery..
The 320-foot ship was purchased in
the mid-1960s and sold about 14
months ago, according to church'
spokesmen.. Built in 1937, it had once
served as a freighter and a ferry. Under the command of
"Commodore" Hubbard, as he ranked himself aboard the
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-
angular course from ports in Spain and Portugal, south to .I
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]
secular business management training firm whose clients;
could not be divulged.
Adding to the aura of mystery, the ship transmitted cad
ed radio messages to New York and.points unknown and
established land bases in Casablanca and Tangier,. cities
The Apollo appears to have, done 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-
ca 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. callle said, that the Apollo was "in a very
bad state of repair" and believed, that. "the lives of the
crew had been in jeopardy,whtle the vessel was at sea." ;
"The Panamanian consul general has tried unsuccessfult
ly to meet Commodore Hubbard, who has taken a suite at
the El Mansour Hotel and has instructed the hotel person'
net to refuse all telephone calls." . ' I .11 . "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 front
smuggling to drug traffic to a far-out religious cult."
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At times the 4pollo and OTC appear to rave deliberately
teased the curiosity of diplomatic officials. ..
From Tangier in February of 1971, American Consul
General Howard D. Jones wrote to the U.S. legal attache in
Madrid of a puzzling social encounter with someone from
the OTC. "I recently met at a social function a young, American..
lady associated with this new enterprise,' Jones wrote.
"She introduced herself to an American standing with me r
in this way. 'I am Meredith Thomas, I am here with a Pan-
amanian corporation, and that is all I can tell you."'
"The air of mystery on the good ship Apollo ... may
not mask any Illegal activity; still. I thought it worthwhile
to check," Jones said. - i
Fourteen months later, .the U.S. consulate at Tangier
dispatched a lengthy cable to Washington reflecting a
mixture of bemusement and bewilderment at the semi-
clandestine activities of Scientology in Morocco.
The April 26,1972, cable from Tangier said
:
"Little . is known of the operations of (the)' Operation
and Transport Company here, and its officers are elusive
about what It does. However, we presume that the Scien-
tologists aboard the Apollo and in.Tangier do whatever. it
Is that Sclentologists do elsewhere.
"There have been rumors in town that the Apollo is in-
volved In drug or white slave traffic. However, we doubt
these reports...
"The stories about white slave traffic undoubtedly stem
from the fact that included among the crew of the Apollo
are a large number of strikingly beautiful young ladies.
However, we are skeptical that a vessel that stands out
like a sore thumb, in which considerable Interest is bound
to be generated, and with a crew numbering in the hun-
dreds, would be a reasonable vehicle for smuggling. or;
white slaving."
""` Ora ' an extended' cruiser through the Caribbean in' the
summer of 1975, rumors of illicit or clandestine activity
followed the Apollo from island to Island like seagulls be-.
hind a fishing smack.
In September, 1975, the American Embassy in Trinidad'
.cabled in a local news roundup to, Washington that the ;
"controversial yacht Apollo seems' to have worn out Its
welcome in Trinidad."
Stories in a weekly tabloid called The Bomb contnected
the ship with Scientology, told the story of a leading local
';Calypso singer., named. Lord Superior who had Joined the,
church and then rejected.it, and in the end "appear.to have
soured the previously enthusiastic attitude of Trinidadian
{ The Bomb also speculated that the ship was linked to-
:the CIA and Sharon Tate murders in Los Angeles. That led
to a libel action by the Church of Scientology. ;f
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