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Captain Haddock: His nationality?

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Furienna
Member
#71 · Posted: 9 Jul 2019 02:09
Remember how Tintin and his friends found an old paper in a box, that had been swollowed up by a shark? It is confirmed by that paper that the king during Sir Francis's time was Louis XIV.
snowybella
Member
#72 · Posted: 9 Jul 2019 04:25
Furienna

Thank you!

Upon checking Wikipedia, Louis XIV passed on in September 1, 1715 - if Sir Francis was (say) 20 during the time he battled with Red Rackham and still got his title and house (let's say he returned home in 1702), he'd have to have been in his nineties when Mr. Barton "recognised" him in 1771 - and I don't think Barton is so forgetful as to confuse a ninety-something-year-old for a sixty- or fifty-something-year-old! If he returned in 1714, that makes it a somewhat more plausible eighty-something...but somehow I doubt it (even for an aristocrat), and even if he did make it to that age, I don't think he'd want to be recklessly sailing.

In the English edition, according to my memory, his king is Charles II, who passed on in Februrary 6, 1685...which would mean, if he still lived in 1771, he'd have to be one of the world's oldest people to have ever existed, at the whopping age of 108 (assuming he returned in 1684, of course)!

So it was a wild goose chase, after all - sincerest apologies!


...unless one of his sons was a Sir Francis Jr.?
mct16
Member
#73 · Posted: 6 Mar 2022 13:08
Haddock is French, born and bred in France!

I recently read the French version of "Destination Moon", which I have previously only read in English:

At the beginning of the famous "goat" episode, Haddock gets hit on the head by the aerial of his spacesuit. On page 40, panel 1 of the French version, he angrily snaps "si jamais je decouvre le pirate qui m'a fait ce coup de Trafalgar" ("if ever I find the pirate who did that Trafalger blow to me")!

"Coup de Trafalgar" is a reference to the unusual tactic employed by British Admiral Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 in which the British fleet, outnumbered by the combined French and Spanish ships, attacked from the side, splitting them up. This manoeuvre resulted in confusing the French and the Spanish, causing them to lose several ships and thousands of men, while the British lost no ship and only a few hundred men.

"Coup de Trafalgar" ("a Trafalgar blow") has since become a French expression meaning a disastrous result caused by an enemy's quickness and cunning; just as how Haddock describes the blow to his head which he imagines was done by an unknown third party, whom he also describes as a "pirate".

Given that Trafalgar was a major French defeat, such an expression being used in a negative way by a Frenchman makes sense, especially when you add the remark about a "pirate".

Belgians are mostly seen as anglophiles (Brexit exempted I suppose), so I'd imagine them using the expression as a way of conveying admiration for a positive result.

Archibald Haddock may have been raised in one of the great French seaports like Calais, Marseilles or Brest, hence his favourite French expression of frustration "Tonnerre de Brest" ("Thunder of Brest" which in English becomes "thundering typhoons")!

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