Captain Haddock
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Captain Archibald Haddock (Capitaine Archibald Haddock) is a character in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin. He is Tintin's best friend, a seafaring captain in the Merchant Navy or Merchant Marine, who was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Haddock was initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but in later albums he became more respectable and genuinely heroic (notably in the seminal Tintin in Tibet, where he soberly volunteers his life to save his friend). Although when introduced Haddock has command of a freighter, in later volumes he is clearly retired. The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm acts as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.
Haddock uses all sorts of words as insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "blistering barnacles", "thundering typhoons", "bashi-bazouk", "kleptomaniac", "anacoluthon", and "pockmark", but no words that are actually considered swear words (see list of exclamations used by Captain Haddock). Haddock is a hard drinker, especially of whisky of the Loch Lomond brand, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect.
A story goes that Haddock's creator, the artist Hergé, was inspired to choose the surname "Haddock" by his wife making the remark that the haddock was a "sad English fish". Haddock remained without a first name until the last completed story, Tintin and the Picaros (1976), when the name Archibald was suggested. At the conclusion of Red Rackham's Treasure, Haddock purchases his ancestral seat, the castle Marlinspike (Moulinsart), where he, Tintin and Calculus live.
Trivia
- Captain Shaddock was a real-life 17th century English sea captain who worked for the East India Company. It was Shaddock who introduced the pomelo (a citrus fruit) to the West Indies, and to this day a 'shaddock' is an alternative name for a pomelo (and sometimes even for a grapefruit). It is not known whether Hergé was aware of Shaddock's existence.
- In the French adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's anime Captain Harlock, the main character (Harlock) and the anime's title were renamed Albator due to the resemblance between Captain Haddock's and Captain Harlock's names.
- Captain Haddock is an unlikely member of the SSS - The Society for Sober Sailors
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