Flynn suffered a broken ankle during filming, and while he was recovering, Universal took advantage of the unused sets by scripting and shooting a hastily assembled B picture, Yankee Buccaneer with Jeff Chandler.
In her autobiography "'Tis Herself", Maureen O'Hara says that Errol Flynn was always prepared, always knew his lines, and was a pleasure to work with in the mornings. But he drank and by 4pm was in no shape to continue. Even after director George Sherman banned alcohol on the set, O'Hara recalled, Flynn would inject oranges with booze and eat them in the morning, so that he was drunk by afternoon. O'Hara did all the romantic closeups at the end of the day with a black flag marked "X" to represent Flynn.
Though Errol Flynn did most of his own stunts, he balked at the one involving sliding down through a sail on a rapier blade, which was originated by Douglas Fairbanks in The Black Pirate. The stunt was performed by a double.