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
Richard Haddock killed in the wreck. Haddock returned to London and attended a meeting with King Charles II. There the King bestowed a mark of favour on Haddock for his actions during the battle, taking a satin cap from his head and placing it upon Haddock's. The cap was kept in the family for many years, with a note describing This satin cap was given by King Charles the second, in the year 1672, to Sir Richard Haddock, after the English battle with the Dutch, when he had been captain of the Royal James, under the command of the Earl of Sandwich,