Tintin (character) making it in his role of explorer. Clearly unencumbered with financial preoccupations, after "Red Rackham's Treasure" he is ensconced as a permanent house guest in the stately Marlinspike Hall with retired mariner Captain Haddock and the scientist Professor Calculus. Tintin occupies all of his time with his friends, exploring the bottom of the sea, the tops of the mountains, and the surface of the Moon (sixteen years before astronaut Neil Armstrong). Through it all, Tintin finds himself cast in the role of international social crusader, sticking up for the underdog and looking after those less fortunate than himself. From the
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