The Sea Org 1968.

Mission Perth

Commander Jill van Staden and Lieutenant Wally Burgess of the Sea Organization arrived in Perth, Western Australia, on Saturday, 24th February, on a special mission for L. Ron Hubbard. Their purpose was to ensure that Scientology Ethics is used correctly in Perth.
They arrived on a Saturday afternoon and found the organization closed. Within an hour, all staff were present. Commander van Staden declared the organization in a condition of Non-Existence. The organization did not exist for the residents of Perth.
Suppressive persons working in the organization and in the area were located, and immediately correctly labelled.
Special handout leaflets were prepared and over 3,000 were distributed in Perth.
The Test Centre was put in again and a large red and white sign announcing this new service was put up outside the front door.
The film "An Introduction to Scientology" featuring L. Ron Hubbard is now being screened each Monday to Friday night. A daily free lunch-hour lecture was started.
L. Ron Hubbard personally advised Perth organization to apply standard ethics, keep technology high and get all the people of Perth to attend the free Personal Efficiency lecture and make Perth the first all-Scientology city in the world.

The Royal Scotman had been asked several times to shift its berth. The ship's Port Captain steadfastly refused. What the Scientologists call a "flap" occurred, and the authorities, probably exacerbated by this quite usual display of Sea Org arrogance, had to be placated. A new captain was appointed, who did well for a short while, until the Scotman dragged anchor and nearly ran aground. Commodore Hubbard stayed aboard the Avon River, promoting his wife, Mary Sue, to the rank of Captain, and giving her command of the larger ship. The fleet moved to Burriana, a few miles along the Spanish coast, for repairs to the Royal Scotman. This time the Royal Scotman did run aground. The Commodore gravely assigned the ship, and all who sailed on her, the Ethics Condition of Liability.
For several weeks a peculiar spectacle could be seen travelling up and down the Spanish coast: a ship with filthy gray tarpaulins tied about its funnel. Every crew member wore a gray rag. It is rumored that even Mary Sue's corgi dog, Vixie, wore a gray rag about her neck. Mary Sue suffered the long hours, the poor diet and the exhausting labor with the rest of the crew. Finally, the Royal Scotman rejoined the Avon River in Marseilles. The crew paraded, sparkling in new uniforms, and the Commodore held a ceremony to upgrade the ship from Liability, so ending the "Liability Cruise." Soon after, Hubbard moved with his top Aides to the Royal Scotman, which became the Flagship of the Sea Org fleet. Scientologists called it simply "Flag." ¹³
In 1968, Hubbard's Ethics was put into action with the chain-locker punishment. A chain-locker is "a dark hole where the anchor chains are stored; cold, wet and rats," to quote one ex-Sea Org officer. The lockers are below the steering in the bowels of the ship. A tiny manhole gives access, and they are unlit. When a crew member was in a low enough Ethics Condition, he or she would be put in a chainlocker for up to two weeks.
John McMaster says a small child, perhaps five years old, was once consigned to a chain-locker. He says she was a deaf mute, and that Hubbard had assigned her an Ethics condition for which the formula is "Find out who you really are." She was not to leave the chain locker until she completed the formula by writing her name. McMaster says Hubbard came to him late one night in some distress, and asked him to let the child out. He did, cursing Hubbard the while. Another witness claims that a three-year-old was once put in the locker.
Another Ethics Condition had the miscreant put into "old rusty tanks, way below the ship, with filthy bilge water, no air, and hardly sitting height... for anything from twenty-four hours to a week... getting their oxygen via tubes, and with Masters-at-Arms [Ethics Officers] checking outside to hear if the hammering continued. Food was occasionally given in buckets," according to a former Sea Org executive.
The miscreants were kept awake, often for days on end. They ate from the communal food bucket with their blistered and filthy hands. They chipped away at the rust unceasingly. As another witness has tactfully put it, "there were no bathroom facilities." While these "penances" were being doled out, the first "overboard" occurred. The ships were docked in Melilla, Morocco, in May 1968. One of the ship's executives was ashore and noticed that the hawsers holding the Scotman and the Avon River were crossed. He undid a hawser, and found himself grappling with the full mass of an unrestrained ship as it drifted away from the dock.
Mary Sue Hubbard ordered that the officer be hurled from the deck. There was a tremendous crash as he hit the water. Ships have a "rubbing strake" beneath the waterline to keep other ships at bay in a collision. The overboarded officer had hit the steel rubbing strake! The crew peered anxiously over the side waiting for the corpse to float to the surface.
The bedraggled officer was surprised when he walked up the gangplank and found the crew still craning over the far side of the ship. Fortunately for Mrs. Hubbard's conscience, and the failing public repute of Scientology, the officer concerned was not only a good swimmer, but also expert at Judo. Most fortunate of all, he had seen the rubbing strake, and the explosive crash was caused when he thrust himself away as he fell. For a short time, overboarding was abandoned.
It is difficult to comprehend the stoicism with which some Scientologists suffered the Ethics Conditions. It is remarkable even to many ex-Scientologists. It is even more remarkable that most Scientologists have probably never heard of the chain-locker, bilge tank or overboarding punishments. Scientologists were used to Hubbard's auditing techniques, where they did not question the reasoning behind a set of commands, but simply answered or carried them out. Many spent their time trying to keep out of trouble, or, when trouble unavoidably came, getting out of the Ethics Condition quickly by whatever means they could.
Most Sea Org members accepted these bizarre practices out of devotion to Hubbard. It is impossible to add to these stark details a convincing picture of Hubbard's charisma. The Sea Org saw themselves as the elite, the chosen few, who would return life after life to rejoin their leader in the conquest of suffering. Hubbard released religious and military fervors in his disciples.
Back on dry land in East Grinstead the farce of Scientology Ethics, and its applicability in dealing with non-Scientologists, continued with a letter to twenty-two local businesses:

As a result of a recent survey of shops in the East Grinstead area, your shop together with a handful of others, has been declared out of bounds for Scientologists .... These shops have indicated that they do not wish Scientology to expand in East Grinstead and we are, therefore, relieving them of the painful experience of taking our money. ¹⁴

The banned "shops" included a solicitor's firm. Another business was "highly commended" for displaying Scientology books, in the face of local criticism.
Hubbard's Public Relations and Ethics "technologies" rebounded in Britain. In July 1968, the British government finally made its move.

In September, Hubbard announced the new Class VIII Auditor Course, in the Auditor magazine. The announcement was accompanied by a center spread of Hubbard's photographs. There is a shot of an Ethics Officer, carrying a heavy wooden baton, wearing dark glasses and full uniform, and scowling at a student who is smiling back, apprehensively. The caption reads: "No one can fool a Sea Org Ethics Officer. He knows who's ethics bait." Another shot shows a Sea Org member suspended in mid-air by two Ethics Officers, one wearing a broad grin. He is about to be thrown over the rail, into the sea. The caption reads: "Students are thrown overboard for gross out tech and bequeathed to the deep!" "Out tech" is a Hubbardism for "misapplication of Scientology auditing procedures." The editor of Auditor 41 thought the photos were a Hubbard joke. Hubbard was deadly serious. ¹⁴
Every Scientology Org was ordered to send two Auditors to be trained as "Class VIIIs." As "VIIIs" their auditing would be "flubless." The course would take three weeks, so previous Ethics procedures were of little use -- they took too long to administer. Rather than languishing in the chain-locker for a week, or doing three days without sleep on "amends projects," students were to be subject to "instant Ethics," or overboarding. There is no doubt that Hubbard ordered this (one ex-Sea Org officer says Hubbard even took out his home movie camera and filmed it once or twice). ¹⁵
Scientologists who joined after 1970 are often unaware that overboarding took place. Most who have heard of it, and those who were subjected to it, dismiss it as a passing phase; unpleasant, but no longer significant. People who experienced it often shrug it off, and even insist that it was "research." It can take persistence to extract an admission of the reality of overboarding. Students and crew were lined up on deck in the early hours every morning. They waited to hear whether they were on the day's list of miscreants. Those who knew they were would remove their shoes, jackets and wristwatches in anticipation. The drop was between fifteen and forty feet, depending upon which deck was used. Sometimes people were blindfolded first, and either their feet or hands loosely tied. Non-swimmers were tied to a rope. Being hurled such a distance, blindfolded and restrained, into cold sea water, must have been terrifying. Worst of all was the fear that you would hit the side of the ship as you fell, your flesh ripped open by the barnacles. Overboarding was a very traumatic experience. ¹⁶
The course lectures too seem to have been a traumatic experience for many. Hubbard lectured from a spotlit dais, surrounded by the female Commodore's Staff Aides in flowing white gowns. The lectures were peppered with the old easygoing manner, but punctuated with tablebanging and bouts of yelling. Later, some of Hubbard's tantrums were edited from the tapes of the lectures. The lectures were "confidential," and only fully indoctrinated Scientologists could attend.
Students wore green boiler-suits, and, after a certain point on the course, added a short noose of rope around their necks as a mark of honor. They had little time for sleep, and were inevitably extremely cautious in their auditing. If they made a mistake, it was "instant Ethics," and they were heaved over the side. ¹⁷
Hubbard published the purpose of the Class VIII course: "It's up to the Auditor to become UNCOMPROMISINGLY STANDARD ... an uncompromising zealot for Standard Tech." Sea Org "Missions" were dispatched from Corfu to all corners of the world to bully Org staffs into higher production. Hubbard pronounced that such "Missions" had "unlimited Ethics powers." ¹⁸
Alex Mitchell of the London Sunday Times reported that a woman with two children had run screaming from the ship, only to be rounded up and returned by her fellow Scientologists. The journalist also said that eight-year-old children were being overboarded:

Discipline ... is severe. Members of the crew can be officers one day and swabbing the decks the next. Status is conferred by Boy Scout-like decoration; a white neck tie is for students, brown for petty officers, yellow for officers, and blue for Hubbard's personal staff .... Recently the crew decided to paint the water tanks. Unwilling to give the job to local contractors the Scientologists did it themselves - only to find that when they next used their taps the water was polluted with paint. ¹⁹

Kenneth Urquhart joined the ship at Corfu. From Hubbard's butler he had risen to become a senior executive at Saint Hill. He had resolutely avoided joining the Sea Org, but was finally cajoled into travelling to Corfu. He was amazed at the change in Hubbard. At Saint Hill he had seen him every day. Although Hubbard occasionally lost his temper, Urquhart had only once seen him quivering with rage. Now screaming fits were a regular feature. OT 3 and the Sea Org had transformed Hubbard.
Amid the turmoil, and with the pressure of the UK ban, and swathes of bad press, Hubbard cancelled enforced Disconnection. The practice of labelling an individual Fair Game was also cancelled: ²⁰

FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations. This Policy Letter does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP [Suppressive Person].

Shortly after arriving in Corfu, Hubbard had issued a Bulletin to Scientologists abolishing Security Checks and the practice of writing down Preclears' misdeeds. ²¹ In point of fact the name of Security Checking was changed: first to Integrity Processing and then to Confessional Auditing. However, the Sec Check lists of questions written by Hubbard in the 1960s remained, and are still in use. A record of the Preclear's utterances during an auditing session is made by the Auditor, and kept by the Org he works for.
Many Corfiots seem to have accepted overboarding, and on November 16, Hubbard was a welcome guest at a reception at the Achillion Palace. With the notable exception of the Prefect, most of the island's worthies attended. The following day, with as much pomp as the Sea Org could muster, the Royal Scotman was renamed yet again, this time deliberately. Diana Hubbard, who had just celebrated her sixteenth birthday, and been awarded the rank of Lieutenant Commander, broke a bottle of champagne over the Scotman's bow, and the ship became the Apollo. In the same ceremony, the Avon River was restyled the Athena. The Enchanter had already been renamed the Diana, but was included in the ceremony nonetheless.
All was not well on the Scientology home front, in England. An application to local authorities for permission to expand Saint Hill castle had been denied. The Scientologists were ordered to pay the legal costs of three of the newspapers they were suing before they could proceed. The son of Scientology spokesman David Gaiman was refused a place at an East Grinstead school until Scientology had cleared its name. Foreign Scientologists posed as tourists to attend a Congress in Croydon, to evade enforcement of the Aliens Act. Gaiman said, "They disguised themselves as humans." It was fair comment. ²²
The English High Court refused to rule against the Home Office's use of the Aliens Act. The Scientologists fought back with more than forty court writs issued for slander or libel on a single day.
The Rhodesian government, which had refused to renew Hubbard's visa in 1966, introduced a ban on the importation of material which promoted, or even related to, the practice of Scientology. The states of Southern and Western Australia joined Victoria in banning Scientology totally. The Sea Org seemed to have put to sea just in time.
The Western Australian "Scientology Prohibition Act" was far more succinct than that of Victoria:

1. A person shall not practice Scientology. 2. A person shall not, directly or indirectly, demand or receive any fee, reward or benefit of any kind from any person for, or on account of, or in relation to the practice of Scientology. Penalty: for a first offence two hundred dollars and, for a subsequent offence, five hundred dollars or imprisonment for one year or both.

The Scientologists' response to the bans was in character:

The year of human rights draws to its close. The current English Government celebrated it by barring our foreign students, forbidding a religious leader to enter England, and beginning a steady campaign intended to wipe out every Church and Churchman in England. The hidden men behind the Government's policies are only using Scientology to see if the public will stand for the destruction of all churches and churchmen in England .... Callaghan, Crossman and Robinson follow the orders of a hidden foreign group that recently set itself up in England, which has as its purpose the seizure of any being whom they dislike or won't agree [sic], and permanently disabling or killing him. To do this they believe they must first reduce all churches and finish Christianity. Scientology Organizations will shortly reveal the hidden men . . . [with] more than enough evidence to hang them in every Country in the West.

The public seemed perfectly willing to witness the destruction of Scientology. Neither the promised exposure of the "hidden men" nor the destruction of "all churches and churchmen" ensued. Instead, David Gaiman, head of the Public Relations Bureau of the Guardian's Office, issued a "Code of Reform." The severe puritanical and punitive approach was no longer necessary. The Church was going to become a moderate and liberal organization, which would continue its battle against the evils of psychiatry (spokesmen are trained to attack psychiatry as a response to any criticism of Scientology). Thirty-eight libel suits were dropped. And while the press and governments were being assured of this new liberal attitude, the new Class VIIIs were returning to their Orgs and instituting their own forms of overboarding. ²³
In the Edinburgh Advanced Org, the miscreant was thrown into a bath of hot, cold or dirty water. In Los Angeles, he or she would be hosed down fully clothed in the parking lot, though later a large water tank was used. John McMaster has said that in Hawaii the offender's head would be pushed into a toilet bowl, and the toilet flushed. The same technique was used in Copenhagen.
In the Advanced Orgs in Edinburgh and Los Angeles, staff were ordered to wear all-white uniforms, with silver boots, to mimic the Galactic Patrol of seventy-five million years before. According to Hubbard's Flag Order 652, mankind would accept regulation from that group which had last betrayed it. So the Sea Org were to ape the instigators of the OT 3 incident. By the same token, all the book covers were revised to show scenes from the supposedly lethal incident.
"Captain" Bill Robertson, who introduced the uniforms to both Edinburgh and Los Angeles, also ordered a nightwatch in Los Angeles. The crew assembled on the roof every night to watch for the spaceships of Hubbard's enemies. "Captain" Bill has continued his crusade against the invading aliens, the "Markabians," into the 1990s.
In Britain, in January 1969, Sir John Foster was appointed to conduct an Inquiry into Scientology. In Perth, Australia, police raided the local Org, and fourteen individual Scientologists, and the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, were prosecuted for "practising Scientology." In New Zealand in February, another Inquiry got underway.
Hubbard was still trying to ingratiate himself with the military junta which controlled Greece. He applauded them in a press interview saying "the present Constitution represents the most brilliant tradition of Greek democracy." To win favor, Hubbard announced the formation of the Help Greece Committee which issued a promotional piece for a "University of Philosophy in Corfu." He boasted that "Most professors of psychology and schools of psychology foresee as part of their lessons [the] subject of dianetics and scientology."
The symbol of the Help Greece Committee was a Greek Orthodox cross set at the center of the thirteen-leaved laurels of the Sea Organization. This was not a tactful gesture; Bishop Polycarpos was already concerned about the spiritual influence of Scientology. The British Vice-Consul, John Forte, was more concerned with the material influence of Scientology. He had been receiving complaints since the Scientologists arrived. He later published a booklet called The Commodore and the Colonels describing his experiences. Forte became interested in several defections from the Apollo, including that of William Deitch, who disappeared completely. Early in March 1969, a detachment of U.S. Marines arrived. Colin Craig met a group of them, and described life aboard a Scientology ship. The Marines insisted that he tell his story to the British Vice-Consul immediately.
Craig and another Belfast man, Jack Russell, had answered an advertisement for maintenance fitters. Arriving on Corfu, they were assigned to the Apollo's fifteen-year-old Chief Engineer. Russell was attracted to Scientology, but Craig was so alarmed that he feigned illness and locked himself in his cabin. With Forte's assistance they were both repatriated.
While this was taking place, Hubbard announced that Scientology was "going in the direction of mild ethics and involvement with the Society. After nineteen years of attack by minions of vested interest, psychiatric front groups, we developed a tightly disciplined organizational structure... we will never need a harsh spartan discipline for ourselves." ²⁴
The Greek government, concerned by the many complaints it had received, peremptorily ordered the two hundred or so Scientologists on Corfu to leave Greek territory. Protests were made that the Apollo was not seaworthy, so the ship was inspected, and declared fit for a voyage in the Mediterranean. The flagship Apollo was given twenty-four hours to leave Greek waters. She left on March 19, ostensibly for Venice.
Two days later a young Scientologist arrived, and introduced himself to Vice-Consul Forte. When asked why the Apollo had left, Forte simply handed him Hubbard's printed explanation. The departure was "due to unforeseen foreign exchange troubles and the unstable middle eastern situation." Forte discovered many years later that the Scientologist had subsequently burgled both his office and his villa looking for evidence of Forte's involvement with the Conspiracy.
Soon afterwards, an Inquiry started in South Africa. Hubbard turned his back on the "wog" world, and concentrated on introducing a new form of Dianetics, and integrating it into the Scientology "Bridge." He issued a bizarre order to the Sea Org, called "Zones of Action," which outlined his plans. Scientology was going to take over those areas controlled by Smersh (the evil organization fought by the fictional James Bond), rake in enormous amounts of cash, clean up psychotherapy, infiltrate and reorganize every minority group, and befriend the worst foes of the Western nations. Hubbard's stated intention was to undermine a supposed Fascist conspiracy to rule the world.
On June 30, 1969, the New Zealand Commission submitted its report. Their attitude to Scientology was sensible. Rather than banning, fining or imprisoning Scientologists, they recommended the cessation of disconnection and Suppressive Person declares against family members. Further, they recommended that no auditing or training be given to anyone under twenty-one, without the consent of both parents (including consent to the fee), and a reduction of the deluge of promotional literature and prompt discontinuance when requested.
The Commission recommended that no legislative action be taken. However, it found "clear proof of the activities, methods, and practices of Scientology in New Zealand contributing to estrangements in family relationships . . . the attitude of Scientology towards family relationships was cold, distant, and somewhat uninterested . . . the Commission received a letter from L. Ron Hubbard stating that the Board of Directors of the Church of Scientology had no intention of reintroducing the policy [of disconnection]. He also added that, for his part, he could see no reason why the policy should ever be reintroduced .... This undertaking does not go as far as the Commission had hoped... [it was seen that] the activities, methods, and practices of Scientology did result in persons being subjected to improper or unreasonable pressures." Nonetheless, the New Zealand Government did not outlaw the practice of Scientology. The tide appeared to be turning.
In July, the Church of Scientology scored a victory of sorts in their long-running battle with the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. In 1963, the FDA had raided the Washington Org, seizing E-meters and books. The whole affair had been in and out of the courts from that time. Now a Federal judge ruled that although the E-meter had been "mis-branded," and that its "secular" use should be banned, it might still be used for "religious" counselling, as long as it was carefully relabeled to indicate that it had no curative or diagnostic capabilities. To this day the Church of Scientology has never fully complied with the relabeling order, but E-meters do carry an abbreviated version of it. This was not the end of the FDA case, however.
Also in 1969, an Advanced Organization was opened in Copenhagen. Now the OT levels were available in England at Saint Hill (the Edinburg AO had moved there), in Los Angeles, in Copenhagen, and aboard the "flagship" Apollo.
Up until this time the "First Real Clear," John McMaster, had been the emissary of Scientology. He had braved the incisive questioning of television interviewers, and, overcoming much bad publicity, inspired many people to join Scientology. He had even been sent as a Scientology representative to the United Nations in New York by Hubbard, and managed to secure interviews with several important people. In November 1969, John McMaster resigned from the Church of Scientology. He felt that the "Technology" of Scientology was of tremendous value, but questioned the motives of those managing the Church, most especially Hubbard.
McMaster probably feared for his own safety. He had been overboarded several times, and the last time was left struggling in the water for three hours with a broken collarbone.

The last straw for McMaster had been the brutal murder of three teenagers in Los Angeles. Two had been Scientologists, the third was disfigured beyond identification. The mutilated bodies were left a hundred yards away from a house where Scientologists lived. McMaster felt that this was an act of retribution for Scientology's duplicity. A few weeks later, The New York Times revealed that Charles Manson had been involved in Scientology. Internal Scientology documents show that Manson had actually received about 150 hours of auditing while in prison. There was a cover-up by the Guardian's Office, which successfully concealed the extent of Manson's considerable involvement.

http://www.american-buddha.com/cult.pieceofbluesky.4.3.htm

Kenneth Urquhart can say what he likes now, but everything written above is consistent with what I observed whilst on the Apollo. I did not know about Charles Manson, but I can believe it because most everything written by Johnathon Attack is true as I remember it.Additionally, my Father thought he was 007 - James Bond, now why would he think that?Crazy but true!

The symbol of the Help Greece Committee was a Greek Orthodox cross set at the center of the thirteen-leaved laurels of the Sea Organization. This was not a tactful gesture; Bishop Polycarpos was already concerned about the spiritual influence of Scientology. The British Vice-Consul, John Forte, was more concerned with the material influence of Scientology. He had been receiving complaints since the Scientologists arrived. He later published a booklet called The Commodore and the Colonels describing his experiences. Forte became interested in several defections from the Apollo, including that of William Deitch, who disappeared completely. Early in March 1969, a detachment of U.S. Marines arrived. Colin Craig met a group of them, and described life aboard a Scientology ship. The Marines insisted that he tell his story to the British Vice-Consul immediately.

Yet another thing that totally justifies my story and life aboard the Apollo is that of William Deitch.Major Forte was interested in several defections from the Apollo, so am I, the last time I saw him he was locked up in a cattle stall, a gridded enclosure, with two other men. I will never forget it because I was so confused. Here was this man whom I knew to be really nice, yet there he was locked up, about to be thrown off the ship for supposedly running drugs. I don't know how true or not that was. But, I know this, he was a good man, highly respected amongst the Scientology community and I will give him this, he knew how upset and confused I was as a young child when I saw him there locked up. He told me, "It's alright, I know, you know you can't speak to me, it will be alright." But it wasn't.Here was a man I did hold in high esteem, unlike Hubbard and he was locked up, behind bars and he knew I was frightened, tried to comfort me when he was the one locked up. How could I ever forget that.Janis, you were with me, did you not see what I saw? It was a prison on board the Apollo, a prison.