Captain Haddock Hergé thought this was a perfect name for Tintin’s new mariner friend, and so Captain Haddock was born. There was a real 20th-century ship's master bearing this unlikely but appropriate surname: Captain Herbert Haddock had been the skipper of the famous White Star Line's passenger vessel "Olympic". He had also been temporarily at the helm of Olympic's even more famous sister ship "Titanic" before "Titanic" was officially handed over to White Star for her doomed 1912 maiden voyage. Another famous namesake, and a possible inspiration for the Captain's ancestor Sir Francis, was the English admiral Richard Haddock, a veteran of
Herbert Haddock killed in action on 27 September 1917 at the age of 21, and was buried at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. In the 28 May 1935 edition of the "London Gazette", Ruth was described as a spinster. UK censuses and civil registers show that the family lived in Rock Ferry until at least 1904. They later moved to Southampton, living in the suburb of Bitterne. Bouchette died on 11 March 1935. Herbert Haddock Herbert James Haddock, CB RNR (27 January 1861 – 4 October 1946) was an English naval reserve officer and ship's captain, and was best known as the