Great cost was afforded to make a sanitary of mosquito-proofing over a section of Kingston, Jamaica. Sets consumed of plaster, of cement, of lumber, and ten tons of paper. Director Herbert Brenon employed 20,000 people during the eight months of production and used of film to shoot the picture. The Moorish city cost $350,000 to build, and was destroyed in one climatic scene. The total number of persons appearing in it was 21,218, which included 200 mermaids, and 300 dancing girls and women of the Sultan's harem. The 100 women recruited from the US and Europe to portray nymphs underwent weeks of training by Kellerman to swim using a single stroke in unison and to avoid unnecessary splashing.