This is the first hint in the series that Jessica's maiden name is MacGill. Angela Lansbury's real-life mother was famed actress Moyna MacGill but MacGill was not her real birth name. Her birth name was Charlotte McIldowie but the series decided to use her mother's stage name as Jessica's maiden name.
The first and only appearance of Jessica's brother, Dr. Marshall McGill.
When Jessica is pretending to be drunk, she speaks the words, "murder most foul". This is the beginning of a line in Shakespeare's Hamlet, spoken by the ghost of Hamlet.
The title refers to the traditional Scottish ballad, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean".
As in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), both Leslie Nielsen and Byron Webster play high ranking cruise ship crew.