Tintin Forums

After Tintin finds the prince in the cell and gets trapped in the fireworks room, Captain Haddock appears out of nowhere!
There was no reference to him being involved with the story beforehand, so how did he know that Tintin was even there?
I'm going by the TV version here, I haven't read the book in a few years. This doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone help?

If I remember correctly Black Gold was originally begun just before the war began in 1939, and Haddock first appeared in 1940, so he wasn't to be in it.

Black Gold was left unfinished where Müller had knocked out Tintin in the desert.
Hergé picked up Black Gold in 1950 and continued the story.

When Tintin is trapped in the fireworks room and the Captain comes to his rescue, Hergé had to explain why he wasn't there earlier on in the adventure.

He dealt with the issue cleverly by having Haddock begin to explain things to Tintin, but always being interuppted by something more important.

I hope that helps.

Yeah, the Ellipse-Nelvana version completely glosses over the issue, which I thought was a little weak.

That said, I think many Tintinologists agree that the "very simple yet very complicated" non-explanation for Haddock's sudden presence (and knowledge of where Tintin was within Wadesdah) is one of Hergé's weaker moments as well... for a very resourceful author, he seems to have dropped the ball a little in explaining this one.

Not that I can imagine a great explanation myself... the 1950 edition could have made a link between Haddock as a British naval officer (as we mostly agree he was... British, I mean) and the fact that Britain was very ubiquitous in the region at the time that version was drawn (actually up until two years prior when they pulled out of then-Palestine).

I'm assuming that Haddock pulled into port on his merchant navy vessel, and perhaps heard or read something about Tintin's abduction and followed the trail.

However that doesn't really follow the "very simple yet very complicated" formula

What do others think?

Rik

In the book doesn't Haddock explain to Tintin over the telephone that he's going away on naval excursions, due to an imminent war?
I may be totally wrong as I'm not in front of my collection at the moment, but I'm sure that's the case.

Therfore Haddock would have been in the area on convoys (oil convoy?) - but how he knew where Tintin was is another matter. Could Naval Intelligence be involved???

Haddock - naval intelligence, surely an oxy-moron?

Anyway there could be an adventure story had there, as Haddock involvement in preparations for the imminent war could have taken him off somewhere in the Mediterranean around the Middle East, during the course of which he comes across some information about Tintin's where abouts, hence a long version and short version.

I think Haddock was near port and was maybe told to pick two officers - Thomson and Thompson.
While doing so, Haddock finds out from the Emir that his son Abdullah has been captured, and Tintin is trying to investigate.
And maybe they find out that the attack on the pipelines were the handiwork of Dr. Müller!

To be honest I reckon there is a whole spin-off adventure... Captain Haddock: Near the Land of Black Gold
You could easily make a story out of it
Rik

Tintin goes to Khemed to investigate the probable war, and the source of the oil, so it's only reasonable to think that Haddock's navy would have got him to do the same.

But it was a Merchant ship, you'd keep it as far away from a warzone as possible.

Rik