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 was born to Herbert James Haddock (born 1825) in Rugby, Warwickshire on 27 January 1861. Before working for the White Star Line, Haddock was a lieutenant with the Royal Navy aboard HMS "Edinburgh". In 1902, Haddock was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He was later "aide de camp" to British royalty. His White Star Line career included commanding a number of liners, including the RMS "Britannic", SS "Germanic", RMS "Cedric", and RMS "Oceanic". Haddock was also nominally the first commander of RMS "Titanic". He signed on as her master at Southampton on 25 March 1912, and