L. Ron Hubbard:
Founder of Dianetics and Scientology

With the founding of Scientology, and the increasingly international impact of Mr. Hubbard's work, his movements grew commensurately more global. By the mid-1950s, he was regularly traveling between lectures in Europe and instruction at the First Founding Church of Washington, DC. As Executive Director, he further saw to the worldwide administration of Scientology through these years, and the drafting of key organizational policies that still form the basis of Church administration.

As a result of Scientology's growth through the 1950s, Mr. Hubbard re-established his home in the more centrally located England, specifically at the famed Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex. There, and while continuing to advance the administrative body of work by which the Church functions to this day, he likewise advanced the religion itself through continued instruction and lectures. Indeed, in 1959, for example, Mr. Hubbard delivered no less than 128 lectures to burgeoning Scientology centers in Australia, Great Britain and the United States — all while continuing both his administrative duties and research. Among other significant developments through this period, the early 1960s saw his inauguration of the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course lectures, the delineation of the Scientology Bridge and the gradual advancement of that Bridge to increasingly higher levels of spiritual gain.

It was specifically for the advancement of Scientology's highest levels of spiritual attainment that Mr. Hubbard resigned as Executive Director of the worldwide Scientology network, eventually departed from his home in Saint Hill and moved to sea in 1967. The choice was a logical one, particularly in light of his having long been a master mariner licensed to captain any vessel in any ocean. With Scientology now a thriving worldwide religion, Mr. Hubbard simply could not continue his very demanding advanced research while remaining on the administrative front; hence his move to the 3,2006ton Royal Scotman, later to be rechristened the Apollo, and his formation of the Sea Organization — all in the name of a distraction-free research environment. Given that those first Sea Organization members were largely unfamiliar with the sea, 1967 marked a period of extensive training, with Mr. Hubbard drafting much instructional material on the care and management of ships.