Peter Sellers persuaded Peter Medak, a friend of his, to make the film. "He was an incredible guy," said Medak of Sellers. "His invention would go into supersonic flight. You couldn't stop him. He had classical comedy genius."
This was the first of three pirate films that Peter Boyle appeared in over a ten year period. The others were Swashbuckler (1976) and Yellowbeard (1983), all made at a time when no one was really making Pirate films.
The film was shot in 1973 and has a copyright notice in the opening credits for 1974. Columbia Pictures deemed the film not worthy of cinematic release. It was ultimately released on Betamax and VHS home video in 1985, and on DVD in 2016.
According to Peter Sellers, "It started life as a straight pirate yarn. But we got to work on it and turned it into a crazy comedy. You could call it "Goons at Sea". I think it's what people want."