Scientology 'Ship of Horrors' Live Tracker: Follow Quarantined Cruise Ship With Measles Reported Onboard

Table Of Content

• Scientology cruise ship Freewinds' passengers cleared of measles risk, the church says
• Scientology 'Ship of Horrors' Live Tracker: Follow Quarantined Cruise Ship With Measles Reported Onboard
• Media, popular culture, and academia
• Millennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week

One infected person can infect anywhere from 10 to 20 other people. In the close quarters of a cruise ship, just a single person with the measles can cause a real ship show. The Freewinds began service as a Church of Scientology religious retreat in 1988. The 440-foot motor vessel provided a distraction-free environment for parishioners to study and experience the highest level of spiritual counseling available in the Scientology religion. ” Years of training and auditing have brought him to this ultimate point. It is the most significant spiritual accomplishment of his lifetime and brings with it the full realization of his immortality, ” the church says.

Scientology cruise ship Freewinds' passengers cleared of measles risk, the church says

After a suicide attempt, the third woman was moved to a more standard RPF facility in either Los Angeles or Clearwater, Ramana recalls. From the time she got aboard, she had her hands full with other Sea Org members. Ramana says she didn’t interact with any of Scientology’s more famous celebrities, and she was out of the Sea Org by the time Tom Cruise’s famous birthday party was held on the Freewinds in 2004. She was assigned to the Commodore’s Messengers Organization (CMO) because it was the division that had recruited her.

Scientology cruise ship quarantined over case of measles - New York Post

Scientology cruise ship quarantined over case of measles.

Posted: Wed, 01 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Scientology 'Ship of Horrors' Live Tracker: Follow Quarantined Cruise Ship With Measles Reported Onboard

Leah Remini: Scientology Ship Quarantine Could Be Chance at Freedom - Newsweek

Leah Remini: Scientology Ship Quarantine Could Be Chance at Freedom.

Posted: Fri, 03 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

A good-looking 25-year-old Sea Org member was flirting with her, she says. She was flattered by the attention, and she began to confide in him after a few days. “During our week on the ship, I did get to go on a few outings, but I spent most of the time in a room being talked to by one to three Sea Org members at a time about joining,” she says. “I didn’t have prerequisites for any courses, so while my mom was on course, I got to wander around,” she says. She quickly came to the attention of the Sea Org workers on the ship, she adds, and they began to recruit her heavily to join their ranks.

Media, popular culture, and academia

St. Lucia is providing the ship with 100 doses of measles vaccine at the request of the ship’s doctor, St. Lucia’s Department of Health and Wellness said in a statement. The ship’s doctor is currently monitoring the condition of the ship’s crew and passengers. MarineTraffic.com lists the vessel in port at St. Lucia as the Freewinds. A ship with that name is owned by a Panamanian company linked to the Church of Scientology.

Millennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week

They kept working on her, even going ashore with her when she left the ship. It’s an unusual name, I pointed out, and she explained that her last name is a combination that came from her mother’s Hungarian background and her father’s British family, respectively. “I had to weigh that against helping other people who are thinking of leaving Scientology. My heart goes out to them and I want to help,” she says.

"Freewinds protocols of safety and medical care, that exceed usual nautical standards, proved highly effective in containing the illness to one single case." the statement said. To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here. This article has been updated to include a statement from the Church of Scientology. The ship’s bookstore is kitted out with Scientology books, lectures and other scriptural materials.

“I thought I could trust him, but he freaked out and called the ship,” she says. The ship had a friend of hers at Saint Hill Manor try to talk her into getting on the plane. After avoiding any further contact from the ship for several days, she finally accepted a call while staying with friends in East Grinstead. “They threatened disconnection from my mother if I didn’t leave the Sea Org properly,” she says. So she agreed to route out in the proper way, but insisted that she do it there in England, and not on the ship. “They were worried about her mother taking her or contacting her — just talking to her, even.

Hubbard's motives

Ramana gave birth to a daughter, Iyana, in January, 2005. Her relationship with Iyana’s father, however, quickly unraveled. “By the time we got to Australia we were ready to separate, but he wanted to stay around to be near our child,” she says.

It found it had shifted tens of millions of dollars into Australia, which has become an international haven and makes tax-free profits with minimal scrutiny. Measles has an incubation period of about 10 to 12 days, according to the CDC. Arthur Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine, told TIME that in a high-risk situation like a quarantine, officials can be be “more aggressive and compulsory” with vaccination. Additionally three decorative ribands were painted on the side of the hull towards the rear.

It was essentially a prison to which crew who were considered nonproducers, security risks, or just wanted to leave the Sea Org, were assigned. RPF members were segregated and not allowed to communicate to anyone else. They had their own spaces and were not allowed in normal crew areas of the ship.

Gawain Baxter was raised a Scientologist and in 1982, at only a few weeks old, his family moved from Australia to Scientology’s Flag Base in Clearwater Florida. He became a Cadet Org member at six while living in a dormitory with 100 other children. While public members of Scientology can live in their homes, members of “Orgs” work as indentured labour both on sea and on land, the lawsuit alleges. They accumulate large debts which are then held over them if they ever try to leave. The plaintiffs say they endured years of emotional, physical and psychological abuse, in particular while spending more than a decade aboard Freewinds in what the lawsuit described as “a world filled with abuse, violence, intimidation and fear”.

David joined Newsweek in 2018 and has since reported from key locations and summits across Europe and the South Caucasus. This includes extensive reporting from the Baltic, Nordic, and Central European regions, plus Georgia and Ukraine. Originally from London, David graduated from the University of Cambridge having specialized in the history of empires and revolutions. You can contact David at and follow him on Twitter @DavidBrennan100. Online shipping trackers show that the Panama-flagged vessel has now left St. Lucia and is on its way to its home port in Curacao. The Freewinds' progress can be tracked in real time by both the MarineTraffic and My Ship Tracking websites.

The exterior design of the Bohème/Freewinds is very similar to the Finnhansa-class ships built as ferries. She has a moderately raked and slightly rounded bow, rounded forward superstructure, terraced rear superstructure and two slim side-by-side funnels. “In 2007, I started dating a guy who was not a Scientologist.” It was the first time she’d ever dated a man outside the church. “He started asking me about it, and he was shocked by what I said about the Sea Org. But slowly, I started to read the stuff on the Internet.

Anti-vaccination advocates have particularly campaigned against the MMR vaccine, which inoculates children against measles, mumps and rubella, arguing that the vaccine causes autism. Scientists have found no evidence that the vaccine causes autism. Scientology does not have an official position on vaccines, Rev. John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology in New York, said in an interview with Beliefnet.

In that story, Cannane also talked to Ramana Dienes-Browning, a former senior executive on the ship who backed up Valeska’s claims. “She had been sent to the ship so as not to be in contact with one of her parents and that’s not what she wanted. “Yes, yes, I would definitely consider it imprisonment because there was no choice in the matter,” she answered. "If nobody asked they'd never get the opportunity to say, 'yes,'" Rinder told Newsweek. "Would they [leave]? I don't know. They have been very, very mind controlled and taught to believe that if they're in a bad place it's being created by their own ill acts." The church of Scientology's vessel "Freewinds" is a beautiful oceanliner, but one woman says it's more like a slave ship.

Instead she wouldn’t get away from it permanently until 2007. Coursework on the Freewinds is a combination of independent book study, cooperative activities, and personal counseling sessions…Most guests spend two or three months onboard. Last week, Steve Cannane of Australia’s ABC network and its program Lateline broke the story of Valeska Paris, a woman who says she was held against her will on Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds, from 1996 to 2007.

Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service Organization All Are Welcome!

Table Of Content

• Ships and land bases
• Here’s what happens on Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds
• ▼ Global Social Betterment & Humanitarian Programs Supported by the Church of Scientology
• Views on Hubbard
• Millennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week
• Track Freewinds Current Position / Location - Freewinds Cruise Ship Tracker - Church of Scientology - Cruising Earth
• 'Ship of Horrors': Leah Remini Says Scientology Cruise Ship's Measles Quarantine Could Be Chance to Flee

The church denied that Valeska was held captive, and Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw’s statement (available below) made no mention of Dienes-Browning. It looks like you may be utilizing ad blocking software or another ad filtering technology while visiting Cruising Earth. Certain areas of this site may not work properly because of this, particularly live updates of ship trackers and webcams. If you know another ship you want to track, enter the ship name or ship line name in the search box below.

Ships and land bases

Discipline was harsh and bizarre, with running laps of the ship assigned for the slightest infraction like failing to address a senior with "Sir". Work was hard and the schedule rigid with seven hours' sleep time from lights out to lights on, short meal breaks, no liberties and no free time ... Newsweek reached out to the Church of Scientology but did not receive a response in time for publication. The Church regularly denies the claims made both by Remini and those who appear on her show. However, over the years, multiple people have gone to extraordinary measures to get off the Freewinds. Freewinds, a 440-foot ship, is touted by the Church as the "pinnacle of a deeply spiritual journey," where Scientologists can reach New OT VIII, the highest level of spirituality.

Scientologists' Cruise Ship Quarantined for Measles - The Maritime Executive

Scientologists' Cruise Ship Quarantined for Measles.

Posted: Wed, 01 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Here’s what happens on Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds

NBC News cited a St. Lucia Coast Guard sergeant, who confirmed the ship was the 440-foot Freewinds owned and operated by the Church of Scientology. In La Paloma Blanca — The White Dove — passengers and guests gather after graduations, concerts, recitals, seminars and other events held in the adjoining Starlight Cabaret. While not all ex-members have dished positive reviews of the MV Freewinds (according to one unhappy passenger, a two-week holiday turned into a 12-year sentence), there's no denying the ship was built with luxury in mind. Remini also said that the apparent measles outbreak this week aboard the Freewinds poses a challenge to Scientologists’ beliefs about their supernatural powers. Scientologists compare the ” Sea Org ” to members of a religious order, like monks and nuns, who devote their lives to the faith, often working long hours for no pay and living communally. The Freewinds is entirely staffed by the Sea Org, the church says, who dress in spiffy naval uniforms.

▼ Global Social Betterment & Humanitarian Programs Supported by the Church of Scientology

Dishing out punishments to CMOs who weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing,” she says. When the CO left the ship for periods, Ramana stepped in to run the CMO of the entire ship. Ramana and her mother returned to Australia, and she immediately prepared to return to the ship. I managed to scrape the money together to fly to America. And then I started to do the EPF”–the Estates Project Force, the boot-camp training for new Sea Org members. Her mother had no idea this was going on, Ramana says, because she was too busy with her own coursework somewhere else on the ship.

In case you missed it, a Church of Scientology cruise ship – Freewinds – has been quarantined following a measles outbreak, with authorities ordering 28 people to stay onboard. Its calm and friendly atmosphere comes from within, from dedicated officers and crew whose work aboard the Freewinds provides an incomparable sailing experience. Amid its service and amenities that begin at the gangway, everyday challenges of life seem to vanish. When Laura Baxter was accused of monopolising the attention of actor Tom Cruise aboard Scientology’s Caribbean cruise ship in 2004, she says her punishment was to be locked in an “extremely hot” engine room of the Freewinds ship. A significant portion of the ship is given over to its use as a religious retreat for Scientologists. Ron Hubbard books, Freewinds has areas given over to the Religious Technology Center, Sea Org and International Association of Scientologists.

One thing that got her through it was her promise to return to the man she was in love with. But while she worked to get her freedom, he was being told that she had changed her mind, wasn’t going to leave the Sea Org, and “hated” him. “They agreed initially, but then they said David Miscavige was on his way to Saint Hill and they didn’t want any ‘ethics particles’ around — that’s what they called you when you were in trouble, an ethics particle,” she says. She would go to an org and set up an event, inviting all of the “publics” (non-staff Scientologists) to attend. “We would show a video and would give a talk about the ship.

Currently, the top end of Scientology’s pricey “bridge” to spiritual enlightenment ends at OT 8, which members only reach after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years. Hubbard was supposed to have written these even higher levels of spiritual expansion before he died, but they have never been released. The only person I was able to talk to was her, and only in writing.

But for whatever reason, her husband’s statistics were down, and that meant he had to be interrogated by ethics officers. The measles case brought the ship into the national spotlight and Rinder told Newsweek he hopes it's a chance to highlight the stories that exist from what he called the "ship of horrors." Health officials probably checked whether each person had gotten the measles vaccine, because that's how you prevent the measles. If someone didn't get vaccine then receiving the measles vaccine within 72 hours of initial exposure to the measles virus and immunoglobulin (IG) within six days of exposure could help protect the person or reduce symptoms. But again, it's not as good as getting the vaccine beforehand, as most people have done for years. "I took to always carrying a pocket knife with me as the idea that I could take my life at any time was the only way I could feel some sense of empowerment," Dienes-Browning wrote.

She described her life aboard the ship under those conditions to being an "animal in a cage," and feeling there was no escape, she became suicidal. The church said in a statement dated May 5 that the woman, who had been "isolated, per ship protocol, in a single-patient medical room with a special controlled-air ventilation system," was "symptom-free." Psychology Today, a Substack entitled "Minded by Science" and have written articles for The New York Times, Time, The Guardian, The HuffPost, STAT, the MIT Technology Review and others.

Valeska Paris spoke to us last week of the hardships of the engine room. She endured it for a couple of months when she first arrived on the ship, and then, near the end of her tenure in 2007, during another time in the engine room, she passed out from the stifling heat. “I filled it out myself and forged the captain’s signature. I took it to the office and lied, telling them I had a mission to go to Clearwater.” Ramana timed her request carefully. She had planned it so the Commander Officer of the CMO would be in an auditing (counseling) session, and the ship was about to leave port.

She was shouted at by church officials and then for three days she says she was only allowed to leave to eat for a few minutes at a time or return to her room to sleep for a few hours. She had to urinate in a bin out of fear of being punished for going to the bathroom unaccompanied, she alleges. St. Lucia, which became independent from the United Kingdom in the 1970s, can decide to either detain the ship or let the vessel go says John Paul Jones, a professor emeritus law at the University of Richmond School of Law who has taught maritime law. If the country asks the ship to leave, the vessel would then return to the nearest international port of the country where it is registered. “Given the highly infectious nature of Measles, along with the possibility that other persons onboard the vessel may have been in contact with and are now possibly infectious due to this disease, a decision was made not to allow persons to disembark. This decision to [quarantine] the ship is in keeping with the health laws of St. Lucia,” the St. Lucia health department said.

They thought it would be disastrous because her mother was a suppressive person. SPs are seen to be deterring others from being Scientologists and therefore actually stopping people from achieving spiritual freedom. Ramana remembers that soon after Valeska arrived, news about how much she hated being there was the talk of the ship. “One of the arguments was talked about a lot, that she was screaming and out of control.

Hubbard created many symbolism concepts, including the eight dynamics, the ARC and KRC triangles, the "S and double triangle" symbol, the Scientology cross, and many others. Paris added that the impending arrival of Scientology leader David Miscavige triggered frantic preparations onboard. She said crew members would be up "until 4 in the morning" cleans and painting. "When the ship is docked, you have to go via the gangway to get off the ship and there's a big security guard there, which will stop you from getting off if you're not allowed to get off," she said. "I was supposed to go for two weeks and I ended up being there for over 11 years."

He’s a familiar character actor who has appeared in films (Monkey Shines, G.I. Jane) and television series (Melrose Place, Californication). “It’s like training for the Army, but you don’t get to use guns. You do heavy labor — I remember breaking through walls with sledgehammers, and the person who runs it is like an Army sergeant,” she says. Eventually, under intense pressure, she made a concession. She told them that after her professional dancing career was over, at 30 to 35 years of age, she might be ready to join the Sea Org. They seemed happy with that offer, she says, and asked her to go ahead and sign a contract now, even though she might not be ready to join their ranks for 20 years.

The ship welcomes thousands of Scientologists and guests from more than 100 nations around the world every year. The remaining 318 crew members have been given the all clear to leave the ship, which docked at the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. After the ship's first 20 years of service, she underwent a full refit and restoration. ” Thus Hubbard’s shift to a sea-based organization during these years was clearly in part a response to his inability to operate freely in many nations, ” Urban writes.