The Lovable Drunken Sea-Dog

After Tintin and Snowy, Captain Haddock is the memorable and consistent of Tintin’s companions. Though he did not join the boy reporter and his dog until The Crab With The Golden Claws, the ninth book in the series.

When first encountered, Captain Haddock is a drunken sea captain. Treated as a joke by his crew they operate a drug smuggling ring right under his nose. When Tintin investigates the drug smugglers he is captured and ends up in lifeboat with the Captain who has been abandoned by his own crew. As Tintin’s adverntures continue, the Captain, against Tintin’s wishes, gets pulled in along side. At first Tintin tries to get rid of the Captain but as time goes on and the Captain shows his fearsome fighting spirit, a friendship develops between the two. Over the subsequent books, Haddock and Tintin become the best of friends and end up living together in the mansion Captain Haddock brought with the treasurer that he and Tintin recovered.

Just before the war, Herge originally started work on The Land of Black Gold but this had to be suspended when Belgium was invaded by the Nazi’s. Subsequently Herge wrote The Crab With The Golden Claws and two other books featuring Captain Haddock. After the war, Herge returned to The Land of Black Gold but by now Haddock was a popular character yet, because the book was started pre-war, it did not feature the Captain. Herge worked round this by having the Captain appear at the end, saying he was caught up in adventures of his own that he never gets to explain due to a series of distractions and accidents.

At first, the Captain constantly battles with the drink, and is regularly drunk but in later life, after buying Marlinspike Manor, his drinking becomes less severe and generally controlled. No doubt down to Tintin’s influence as the boy reporter hardly ever drinks alcohol.

It is possibly the Captain’s language that makes him so popular. Herge wanted Haddock to be a proper hard swearing, hard drinking sea dog but no swearing is allowed in Tintin’s world. So Haddock uses a variety of nonsense phrases and curses as expletives. Herge said that he kept a notebook and whenever he heard a word or phrase that he liked the sound of, he would note it down for the Captain’s next scene. ‘Blistering Barnacles’ became Haddocks most famous and repeated phrase but others include ‘Two-timing Tartar Twisters!’, ‘Ectoplasmic Byproduct!’, ‘Prattling porpoise!’ and ‘Anthropophagus!’.

You can revel in the varied words of Captain Haddock by buying the complete works of Tintin from the Tintin Movie Store see where Tintin’s adventures took place on the Tintin Map.