This new big-screen outing for Captain Pugwash will be set in the Golden Age of piracy, with the story seeing the lily-livered con-artist pirate put on a ship to Botany Bay. But when he escapes, he finds himself at the helm of the Black Pig on a mission to rescue Cabin Boy Tom's father, who has been marooned on a volcanic island with a hoard of treasure protected by an army of angry ghosts.

Just to make things more complicated, Pugwash soon finds he has the infamous pirate Cut-Throat Jake on his tail.