On board the tramp steamer Corita, Captain Lansen ignores a hurricane warning and a customs launch whose crew want to inspect his ship, as he is smuggling the explosive "Phosphor B" ('Phosphore Blanc', i.e. white phosphorus).

His ship's passengers, a mix of rich and poor, also have reasons for leaving Freetown: Dr. Webster, together with his daughter Unity, for his indiscretions with patients; alcoholic conman Harry Tyler with a jacket lined with money; Eva Peters, a wife who has stolen bearer bonds to pay for the ransom on her son in Caracas, and lawyer, Ricaldi, pursuing Eva to retrieve those stolen bonds.

Chief Engineer Nick cannot repair the generator and Captain Lansen, fearing the ship may explode with Hurricane Wendy about to engulf them in a storm, takes the remaining crew and passengers into another lifeboat.

Sarah, Harry and the ship's engineer are then captured by the Spanish, taken to the galleon and brought before "El Supremo", though it becomes obvious to all that the one standing aside and clad in 'pointy-hatted' capirote Inquisitor's clothing, is "calling all the shots" (in the guise of God's Will).

Inspired by Lansen's speech and attitude, "El Supremo" abandons his throne to join them, only to be stabbed by the cleric the moment he turns his back to leave.

The shrouded cadaver of "El Supremo", who never recovered from his stab wound, later receives a burial at sea, with Lansen reading the Rites from the Book of Common Prayer.

Hammer's musical director Philip Martell rejected the original film score by Benjamin Frankel and commissioned a new one from Gerard Schürmann.