Sir Oliver Tressilian: Sakr-el-Bahr, The Sea Hawk

Sakr-el-Bahr, the Hawk of the Sea, the scourge of the Mediterranean, the terror of Christians, and the beloved of Asad-ed-Din, Basha of Algiers, is a devout Muslim corsair. He is also Sir Oliver Tressilian.

Before Capatin Blood, there was Sir Oliver, a nobleman villainously betrayed by a jealous brother. Forced into slavery aboard a Spanish galley, Sir Oliver is liberated by Barbary pirates, joins them, and soon sets off on a quest for revenge.

Sir Oliver is an anti-hero which many readers find superior to Sabatini's later creation Capatin Blood.

In the film Flynn, plays Elizabethan-era privateer Sir Geoffrey Thorpe an English privateer that defends his nation's interests on the eve of the Spanish Armada.

Time magazine of 19 August 1940 observed, "The Sea Hawk (Warner) is 1940's lustiest assault on the double feature. It cost $1,700,000, exhibits Errol Flynn and 3,000 other cinemactors performing every imaginable feat of spectacular derring-do, and lasts two hours and seven minutes...Produced by Warner's Hal Wallis with a splendor that would set parsimonious Queen Bess's teeth on edge, constructed of the most tried-&-true cinema materials available, The Sea Hawk is a handsome, shipshape picture. To Irish Cinemactor Errol Flynn, it gives the best swashbuckling role he has had since Captain Blood. For Hungarian Director Michael Curtiz, who took Flynn from bit-player ranks to make Captain Blood and has made nine pictures with him since, it should prove a high point in their profitable relationship."