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ACCORDING TO SEVERAL Sea Org members, while he was in Las Palmas, Hubbard fell in love
with another woman—Yvonne Gillham, the ship’s public relations ocer. (She would
later go on to start the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood.) She had a wide smile, large
hazel eyes, and a short pixie haircut, bearing a resemblance to Julie Andrews in The
Sound of Music. Gillham combined a down-to-earth personality with a touch of class that
came from growing up in the high society of Queensland, Australia. Inevitably, Hubbard
demanded that she accompany him on the high seas. Gillham had three young children
at Saint Hill, and she had only joined the Sea Org on Hubbard’s pledge that they could
stay with her, but Hubbard’s desire for her had become a prison, one that she was too
loyal to escape.
Yvonne Gillham in a head shot she used during her modeling career, circa 1952
Hubbard was fty-six years old in the fall of 1967, when he set sail with his youthful
crew. There was no destination or purpose other than to wander. Hubbard was by now
portly, ruddy-faced, and jowly; his swept-back, once-red hair had turned strawberry
blond. His eyes, which have been described as blue or green by various observers, were
actually gray, like seawater, casting an odd atness over his aspect. Two strong lines
transected his face: a deep furrow between his eyebrows, matching the notch below his
nose and the cleft in his chin, and his duckbill lips, which were his most prominent
feature. Once aboard, he dressed in various naval uniforms betting his self-appointed
station as Commodore of the fleet, with lots of braid and crossed anchors on his cap.
There were three ships in Hubbard’s navy. In addition to the Avon River, there was a
schooner called the Enchanter, and the 3,200-ton agship, a at-bottom cattle ferry
originally called the Royal Scotsman, which was renamed the Royal Scotman because of a