Leonard’s Braveheart entered a stage 5 cyclone while transporting supplies for the USS Nimitz.
1. Fat Leonard’s “The Braveheart” examines Leonard Francis’s privately owned warship and its role in U.S. Navy operations.
2. Tom Wright hosts the episode, while Leonard Francis provides firsthand accounts of the Braveheart, Gurkhas, and Navy relationships.
3. The episode asks how a foreign contractor gained operational access, diplomatic clearance, and sensitive information within the U.S. Navy.
4. The Braveheart was formerly the British Navy ship ex-Sir Lancelot, which survived a bomb hit during the Falklands War.
5. A South African casino company converted the ship into a casino vessel before Singapore bought it and renamed it Perseverance in 2006.
6. Francis purchased the ship in 2003, renamed it Glen Braveheart, and associated the name with his Scottish grandfather.
7. Francis says he employed up to a couple of hundred Gurkhas, rotating them from Nepal as port-security requirements changed.
8. The Gurkhas operated patrol boats, security equipment, sentry posts, and intelligence functions during port visits.
9. Wright links the Braveheart to Operation Freedom Eagle, a U.S. mission supporting Philippine forces against Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines.
10. Mark 5 patrol boats used by U.S. Navy SEALs had limited fuel range, so Francis says the Braveheart resupplied them at sea.
11. Francis claims U.S. diplomatic notes allowed the Braveheart and its armed mercenaries to enter foreign waters without normal inspections.
12. Michael Brooks, a U.S. naval attaché in the Philippines, pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit bribery.
13. Court documents cited by Wright say Brooks arranged diplomatic clearance and received prostitutes, dinners, money, and ship schedules.
14. Bruno Wengrowski describes the Braveheart as a party boat where Navy officers gambled and watched live sexual performances.
15. Francis says hidden cameras recorded officers during hotel karaoke events, and he kept many videos and photographs in storage.
16. Francis rejects the idea that the recordings were intended as blackmail, saying he kept them for entertainment and because officers were vulnerable to alcohol and women.
17. Francis says Russian and Chinese defense attachés visited or pursued contact with him while he lived near Singapore’s Russian embassy.
18. During a 2007 Indian Ocean cyclone, Francis says Gurkhas commandeered ships after Burmese, Filipino, and Indonesian crew members refused to continue.
19. Listeners tracking Fat Leonard and U.S. Navy scandals.
20. Listeners uninterested in naval corruption or geopolitical security.
