Initially, it was going to be filmed under the title Buccaneer Empire directed by Robert Stevenson with a cast headed by Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Victor Mature and Jack Buetel.
Some of scenes of boarding and fighting on the decks of the ships are "recycled" from The Spanish Main (1945).
The real Blackbeard, born Edward Teach (or Thatch) in England in the late 1600s, turned to piracy after 12 years of serving as a privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession. From 1716 to 1718, he attacked ships in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic coast of North America. Helped by the governor, with whom he shared his booty, Blackbeard maintained a base in North Carolina and raided settlements in the Carolinas and Virginia. Blackbeard died in 1718, killed not by his fellow pirates, as depicted in the film, but by an English force sent from Virginia. Reportedly, Blackbeard liked to tie firecrackers in his long beard, a detail seen here.
Opening credits: This photoplay is based on certain actual and outstanding events in the lives of its principal characters, but the other events and the other characters, except those representing persons whose true names are used, are fictional.