Prior to writing the story, Hergé had read "Balzac et son monde" ("Balzac and His World"), a 1955 book written by his friend Félicien Marceau. Intrigued by the work of Honoré de Balzac, Hergé was inspired by the way in which Balzac kept reusing characters from his previous stories and he subsequently adopted this trait for "The Red Sea Sharks", in which a wide range of characters from "The Adventures of Tintin" make a reappearance. Hergé also introduced a new character, the Estonian pilot Piotr Skut, who would later reappear in "Flight 714 to Sydney".