Captain Haddock home, Marlinspike Hall (or "Moulinsart" in the original French). Harry Thompson, author of "Tintin: Hergé and his creation", writes that the introduction of this large and luxurious country house was "to provide a suitable ancestral home for Tintin and himself to move into." To achieve this in terms of the plot, Hergé also details Haddock's ancestry, something Thompson regards as distinctive: "Haddock is the only regular character whose relatives turn up in the Tintin stories at all (if one discounts Jolyon Wagg and his dreadful family)." As Haddock's role grew, Hergé expanded his character, basing him upon aspects of friends,
The Secret of the Unicorn story was adapted for the 1957 Belvision animated series, "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin", for the 1991 animated series "The Adventures of Tintin" by Ellipse and Nelvana, and for the feature film "" (2011), directed by Steven Spielberg. While browsing on the Brussels Voddenmarkt/"Marché aux puces" at the Vossenplein in the Marollen, Tintin purchases an antique model ship which he intends to give Captain Haddock. Two strangers, model ship collector Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and antique-scout Barnaby, independently try to persuade Tintin to sell the model to them. He also sees the two police detectives, Thomson and Thompson, on the look out