Poor old Anthony Quinn ("Chavez") is going about his harmless pirating when he alights on a ship carrying some British children en route to their schooling in Britain. Immediately the onboard dynamic changes. The captain starts to feel a bit of affection for these weans - even as his crew, and best pal "Zac" (James Coburn) start to think they are little better than Jonahs. This sentiment is only exacerbated as their childish calamities start to impact on the crew's fun and income. Deborah Baxter ("Emily") seems to be the favourite child, and when she becomes injured their pirating days look numbered. The at sea scenarios here are engaging enough and the young actors are not bad at all, but the plot quickly begins to become too contrived - and actually, one could well believe in the biblical theory as just about anything and everything that can go wrong does! I really didn't like the ending at all - somehow it just felt wrong, but it's a nice film to look at with plenty of attention to the production detail. More Mickey than Errol Flynn, but watchable nonetheless.
