ST. LUCIA QUARANTINES SCIENTOLOGY CRUISE SHIP OVER MEASLES CASE:

NBC News, citing a St. Lucia Coast Guard sergeant, reported the boat in question is named Freewinds, which is the name of a 440-foot vessel owned and operated by the Church of Scientology.

The international vessel-monitoring website MarineTraffic.com also showed that a Panamanian-flagged passenger ship identified as SMV Freewinds docked in port near the St. Lucia capital of Castries. The website indicated the ship was headed next to the island of Dominica.

The Church of Scientology website describes the Tradewinds as a floating “religious retreat ministering the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the Scientology religion.” It says it’s home port is Curacao.

Church officials did not immediately respond to efforts by Reuters seeking comment on the situation.

NBC News reported that nearly 300 passengers and crew were aboard the vessel, with one female crew member diagnosed with measles.

And thus, Scientology comes full circle. As Ned Zeman of Vanity Fair wrote in 2014, “Scientology, during the mid-1970s, was literally adrift. The feds unearthed two criminal conspiracies in which Scientologists had endeavored to retaliate against investigations by journalists and to infiltrate law-enforcement and assorted government agencies. Hubbard, in a quest to find a remote location, had fled to international waters years earlier. He took up residence aboard an old transport ship he named Apollo, where he discovered that the life of a seafaring nomad was not without its charms. In his ascots and long denim jackets, ‘the Commodore,’ as he liked to be called then, strolled the decks, regaling his crew with tales of his past heroism. Outfitting his staff in naval uniforms, he created a vaguely paramilitary organization called Sea Org. Membership was restricted to the highest-ranking and most devoted Scientologists, among them Hubbard’s third wife, Mary Sue, whom he had married in 1952. Sea Org also included a group called the Commodore’s Messengers Organization. Most of the Messengers happened to be comely teenage girls dressed in hot pants and halter tops. They were at the Commodore’s beck and call, fetching him drinks, recording his utterances, relaying his commands to others, drawing his bath, and lighting his Kools.”