Sunday 17 April 2011

Continued from "Clearing the Planet"...........

When LRH wasn't using nautical terms for sailing round the med, or telling his wondrous tales of his past life, he was continually going on about Scientology's enemies, there were a lot of them. If you want to get a feel for how the man spoke, then this is a good description:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/ac061169/ac061169a.htm

This is from the 6th of November 1969, I had left the ship some 5 months by then. As a Commadore's Messenger I listened to many such converstaions from LRH to his Officers along the same lines.

This text note below is very similar to many notes that were amongst the mail that I delivered to LRH and that were sent out by him.

http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/despatch/d031269.htm

I didn't really know what to make of any of it, to tell you the truth it was a bit like "the secret seven" or  "the famous five" stories of books I had read, only this was real life and we were living it at sea. The "secret seven" and "famous five" were espionage and who dunit's for children, little did I imagine that being part of the scientology  sea organization would be like that.

The children were expected to attend school about three times a week for 2-3 hours.I don't remember how many children in total there were but a fair few of us.School consisted of a scientology work sheet and a dictionary.I only remember going about 3 times,once I was a messenger school was over.
Most messenger work while I was there consisted of running errands,taking all mail in my in-tray up to LRH,following him around when he strolled the decks.I had to carry an ashtray for his cigarette ash.Sometimes a shift could be really boring sitting in semi dark outside his office waiting for an errand.Often in the evenings was difficult to keep my eyes open. I got on quite well with LRH, he was quite patient with me,and often told me" to be at ease" as I always stood to attention,even when it wasn't necessary.This was very early on.

Whilst still in Tunisia, a group of us children were taken out for a meal by Des and Joyce Popham. They were really nice people, we had a really fun time that day.On the way to the resteraunt, I was fascinated by the women walking around, covered head to toe, with just their eyes peeping out.If that seemed alien to me at the time, which it did, what was going to happen later on the ship was far more surreal.

One of my favourite people on the ship was Amos Jessup, he always took the time to stop and chat, told us stories, made us laugh and on occasion played the harmonica.He had a younger brother Nate Jessup who was dating Diana Hubbard at the time, they spent a lot of time together. Quite often Diana would say, if LRH asks, "you haven't seen me".

Apart from one time, shortly after I joined the ship, I stroked Vixie Marysue's dog.On that day she (MSH) smiled and was quite chatty.I don't ever remember her being like that again.Most evenings when I had to sit outside LRHs office waiting for orders, Marysue would often come out of her office which was right next door, on occasion she would ask a question, but always with the same deadpan face.I often felt like I didn't exist in her eyes.

The Royal Scotsman had a film crew come on board to interview LRH, I didn't know it at the time but this documentary was done by Granada Telivision and is called "The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard". I wasn't even aware that I was filmed in this. A friend back in England, after I had left the Sea Org told me she had seen me on telivision. It was many, many years later that I actually saw this documentary myself and was shocked to see myself as a little girl on the Royal Scotsman/ Apollo. There was no denying it any more to myself, I really had been a child once.

I didn't get to see my Dad as often as i would have liked, we went on 'Libs'( a day off) once a week at first, that was great fun.One day I spent all day trying to find my Dad, I never actually knew where he worked on the ship.I couldn't find him and noone I asked seemed to know where he was either. Eventually late in the evening he found me and said" if it happened again, I was to leave a message for him with the Quartermaster and he would find me."Everything was so new to me and there was always so much going on, new people arrived daily and it was a time of great exitement, but some things were about to change and they were not good.

After I had been a messenger for a short while LRH asked me, "How did I like being a messenger"(or words to that effect).I said "I did like my job(hat as the term would of been), but I missed my family".He replyed with "your family will be fine,you need to concentrate on the group"he looked irritated with me.At the time it caused me great conflict, I kept thinking" How can family not be important" after all this was a 'father' talking wasn't it?

I don't actually remember all the places we visited, or in what order. These are documented elsewhere. My lack of memory on this is probably due to more worrying things that happened whilst aboard the Royal Scotsman/ Apollo.

My first encounter with 'lower conditions'. Ron Pooks was put in 'enemy/treason', can't remember which and was up on one of the smaller decks, sanding down railings.We were not supposed to talk to him, this did not deter my friend. We sneaked some food up to him, which was a present from the cook.Ron seemed cheerful enough at the time , and I did not understand

My second encounter with 'lower conditions'.Yelling and shouting coming from one of the cabins. Hammering on the cabin door with his fists, this went on for days. I never saw who the person was, but was told they were completely mad and were locked in there for their own good.I did not understand.

Meanwhile, everyone on board went about their daily business as if everything was perfectly normal.

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