Tintin Forums

In Red Rackham's Treasure, Haddock claims that the island where The Unicorn sank is unnamed and does not feature on any chart - which adds to the problems of actually finding it.

Does this seem plausible? I would have imagined that by the 1940s, when the story was first published, most of the world had been chartered and all the islands of the Caribbean named.

After all, Sir Francis was rescued from the island by another European ship so it was known to be there.

mct16
It's probably not realistic per se, but I think it adds to the atmosphere of high seas adventure, of pirate escapism. Also, I'm not too sure the island is in the Caribbean - when Haddock finds the island on the globe it's quite far South-east.

Well, when Tintin asks about the island being uncharted, Captain Haddock says something like "It happens some times to small insignificant islands". You're right about Sir Francis being saved though. But still, maybe the island was in an area, where very few ships travelled. Sir Francis had to wait a while to be saved, didn't he?

Actually, the island is in the Caribbean. Before they spotted the island, the Captain was telling Tintin the position of the ship in coordinates, which point somewhere in the Greater Antilles.

I find it hard to believe that such an island of that size in that part of the world would not be marked on any charts at that time. Then again, I agree that the mysterious atmosphere surrounding the island adds to the adventure spirit in the story.