Hubbard had a long history of denigrating the loyalty of those around him. In 1940, he wrote to the FBI to denounce the steward of the New York hotel where he was staying as a Nazi spy, and on his last day in Australia he took the time to denounce several people in Brisbane as supposed Japanese and German agents. After founding Dianetics in 1950, he denounced numerous colleagues and ex-employees — and even his own wife — as supposed Russian agents. There’s no sign that any of his denunciations were taken seriously, and an FBI agent wrote, “appears mental,” on one of his letters of denunciation.

Instead of sending the Don Isidro on a more direct path to resupply troops in the Philippines — such as the route taken by the Coast Farmer — Hubbard sent the Don Isidro the opposite direction, on a meandering path around the entire continent of Australia to Java, and then on to the Philippines, where it ran into the enemy. On February 18, 1942, the Don Isidro was ambushed by a lone Japanese bomber about 80 miles off the Australian coast. Thanks to quick evasive action, she escaped unscathed.

Captain Cisneros turned her around to head to safety in Australia’s northern port city of Darwin, but it was too late. The following morning, the Don Isidro found herself facing an armada of 242 Japanese aircraft on their way to attack the city. Two waves of Japanese aircraft bombed and strafed the ship about 25 miles of Bathurst Island, setting her on fire.

Eleven of the Filipino crew died in the attacks and all of the ship’s lifeboats and life rafts were destroyed. The Philippine-crewed Florence D, another blockade-runner heading out from Batavia, picked up the Don Isidro’s SOS calls. Her captain decided to carry out a rescue and steamed towards the stricken ship. Unfortunately, this also put her in the path of the Japanese bombers attacking Darwin. She was hit by two bombs and sank in minutes with the loss of three lives – two Filipinos and a rescued American airman – plus hundreds of tons of rations and millions of rounds of desperately needed ammunition. The bodies of all fourteen fatalities were never recovered.