Scientology officials insist its S.S. Asbestos will sail again.
Reports of cancer-causing particles aboard the 40-year-old Scientology cruise ship and floating fortress for the church's secret OT VIII training floated around yesterday after a report by a St. Martins newspaper that the ship was sealed by authorities on the island of Curacao. Perhaps most interesting was the old interview with the ship's architect Lawrence Woodcraft, originally aired by Xenu TV and reposted by the anti-Scientology Lisa McPherson Trust and others. Woodcraft recalls in a 2001 sworn statement discovering the blue asbestos in the walls of the cabin of the boat. If the report and Woodcraft's claims that he notified his bosses of the asbestos as far back as 1987, it would mean that the ship's operators have been potentially exposing people to the deadliest kind of asbestos for 21 years.
But a spokesperson for Scientology tells Radar the ship has not been locked up and is undergoing a planned overhaul, which will be finished on schedule.