Captain Haddock the time of their last completed and published adventure, "Tintin and the Picaros", Haddock had become such an important figure that he dominates much of the story. Captain (Archibald) Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, is hinted at being the illegitimate son of the French Sun King (Louis XIV), a possible reference to Hergé's own family history— Hergé liked to believe that his father was the illegitimate son of the Belgian king Leopold II. As Hergé was considering names for his new character, he asked his wife, Germaine, what she had cooked for dinner. She told him, “a sad English fish—haddock.”
Herbert Haddock informed of the disaster by wireless operator Ernest James Moore at 2250 ET on 14 April. After receiving a CQD call from "Titanic", Haddock calculated a new course and headed directly to her. He also sent for an engineer to set the ship's engines to full power. When from "Titanic", at approximately 1600 ET on 15 April, Haddock received a message from Captain Rostron of RMS "Carpathia", explaining that continuing on course to "Titanic" would gain nothing, as "All boats accounted for. About 675 souls saved [...] Titanic foundered about 2.20 am." Rostron requested that the message be forwarded to