Nearly 50 years before Jack Sparrow there was The Buccaneers.



I loved this series when I was 10. Allowing for the technology of the time, it's still a fun show, with good dialogue and good acting. Camera work is generally tight and the sets don't shake.



I am still in love with Lt. Beamish, and the wary relationship he and Tempest develop. But after watching and rewatching 50 years later, I find Hammond's Beamish is the best character in the show. Certainly the most developed one. (And this close to drop-dead gorgeous). Shaw was pretty much playing himself. But Hammond fleshed out what was essentially a comedy relief role of a naive bumbler with authority figure issues into someone with real grit underneath, added the touchstone orf "King and Country", honor and friendship, and went toe to toe with Shaw's ego and came out dead even or sometimes ahead.



The ad-libs and one-upmanship in this old series are just a tickle. I have no idea of what the professional relationship between Shaw and Hammond was, but the two characters really click.



Pity that Beamish disappears after episode 26. The show loses some spark as Tempest has no one to really bounce off of. Beamish was the only one who butted heads with him.



This is a Broadway musical waiting to happen. Someone please show this to Mel Brooks!



A terrific Yo Ho.



And thigh-high leather boots. . . .



One year later:



not only has it held up well and Beamish is as endearing as I remember, I actually managed to locate and contact the actor - Peter Hammond - who portrayed this delightful character.



After several phone conversations, he's 85 and delightful and charming, he barks and bites, he's coy and bright and a veteran curmudgeon all in a neat grandfatherly package.



memories don't come better than this. If I had met him when I was 10 I would have been struck dumb and brain-dead.



It's astounding to me the number of "official" media reviews of this old show I read that dismiss the Beamish character as a nearly total git when I am seeing the character evolve and mature. And I think that had to be Hammond's doing.