The horrors of Hubbard’s Scientology slave ship

A former Scientologist who grew up in Scientology and was separated from her family at the age of 11 and sent to work on board the Flagship Apollo with L. Ron Hubbard has spoken out about her experiences in an extensive Daily Mail feature.

Danielle Chamberlin, who is now 64, called out the UK government and law enforcement agencies for failing to act to prevent abuse within the organisation, telling the Daily Mail “The lack of government oversight means the abuse is still on-going and victims are left shunned by society, unable to seek justice and pushed away by Police who have told us they can’t take action due to the abuse being historic.”

The article describes how “she endured years of emotional and sexual abuse as a child inside Scientology, was subjected to life-threatening punishments ordered by Hubbard, and later watched helplessly as the movement denied her mother life-saving medical treatment.” Born into a Scientologist family, she was forced to disconnect from her father at a young age after he was declared a Suppressive Person, or enemy of the church. Then, at the age of 11 she was sent to join L. Ron Hubbard on the Flagship Apollo to train to become a Commodore’s Messenger. But, “from the very first day I joined the ship in Lisbon, I didn’t want to be there,” she said. “I desperately wanted to go back to my mother.”

“When I arrived, I was taken down to a dormitory in the aft of the ship, and it was overcrowded beyond belief. There were bunk beds everywhere, very little lighting. It was dark, dim, and it stank. A typical day began with what they called the Deck Project Force, where you learned to scrub decks. Hubbard had policies for absolutely everything, how to sweep, clean windows, polish brass, scrub the decks. He was paranoid about smells, so we weren’t allowed to use chemicals with strong odours,” she explained.

The article describes the horrific working conditions Danielle was subject to while on the ship, and how due to a lack of staff pay, she struggled to afford “basic necessities such as sanitary towels or soap.”

She was also the victim of a series of horrific abuses both on the ship and later, when she was offloaded and sent to work at Scientology’s UK headquarters near East Grinstead, Sussex. During a bullbaiting session, Danielle says, “a man sitting opposite me undid my bra and pulled it off through my sleeves. To me, that is physical abuse.” She was also assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which she explains “was effectively a forced labour camp. We had to wear black boiler suits and black armbands, and we weren’t allowed to speak to other crew members unless they spoke to us first.” She was then locked in the chain locker of the ship for three days and three nights, and recalls how she “was fed like an animal through the hatch. Someone would take me out to use the toilet and then put me straight back inside.”

Upon returning to shore, Danielle was sent to work at Saint Hill where she was “groomed by a man in his twenties who raped her when she was 14”, the article continues. Calling on the authorities to take action, she said “the biggest question is why aren’t the authorities doing anything? We’ve seen action taken over the grooming gangs in the north of England. Action has been taken over abuse within the Catholic Church, why is nothing being done about Scientology?’”

“A few years ago, Danielle finally reported her rape to the police but says she has not received a response. She also wrote to Jess Phillips, who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls until May of this year, outlining what she described as systemic abuse within Scientology.

‘This is about an organisation engaging in psychological torture, human trafficking, modern slavery and child abuse,’ she wrote. ‘The lack of government oversight means the abuse is still on-going and victims are left shunned by society, unable to seek justice and pushed away by Police who have told us they can’t take action due to the abuse being historic.’

Danielle said she later received a reply from Phillips’ office expressing sympathy for her experiences, assuring her she would hear back soon. She says she never did.”

Excerpt, Daily Mail (9th August 2026)

Scientology denied the allegations in a statement to the paper, saying there was “no evidence corroborating” her claims in the church’s archives and claiming no children were ever locked in the chain locker.