The Secret of the Unicorn

Graphicnovelbox| englishtitle=The Secret of the Unicorn
foreigntitle=Le Secret de la Licorne


caption=Cover of the English edition
publisher=Casterman
date=1943
series="The Adventures of Tintin (Les aventures de Tintin)"
origlanguage=French
origpublication="Le Soir"
origdate=June 11, 1942 - January 14, 1943
origisbn=2-203-00110-0
transtitle=The Secret of the Unicorn
transpublisher=Methuen
transdate=1959
transseriestitle="The Adventures of Tintin"
transisbn=1-4052-0622-5
translator=Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
writers=Hergé
artists=Hergé
colorists=
previssue="The Shooting Star", 1942
nextissue="Red Rackham's Treasure", 1944

"The Secret of the Unicorn" ( _fr. Le Secret de la Licorne) is one of "The Adventures of Tintin", a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. "The Secret of the Unicorn" is the first part of one of the four multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the story continuing in "Red Rackham's Treasure"

"The Secret of the Unicorn" is the eleventh in the series of "The Adventures of Tintin".

The storyline

There is an amazing epidemic of wallet-snatchings around Brussels. Thomson and Thompson - who, during the course of the story, eventually lose their wallets by the dozens to the thief - look for the culprit at the Old Street Market where they meet Tintin. Tintin buys a boat model of an old ship for Captain Haddock, but, as he does, two men try to haggle it off him. The first is a Mr. Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, and the second is later revealed to be Barnaby. Sakharine calls on Tintin at his flat later, seeking to convince him -unsuccessfully- to sell his ship, but leaves his card. A little while later, the mainmast is broken by Snowy, and Tintin repairs it.

When the Captain visits Tintin, he sees the ship and reacts with astonishment. Haddock takes Tintin back to his apartment and shows him a portrait of one of his ancestors, Sir Francis Haddock, the captain of a 17th century naval vessel. In its background is the very same ship, called "the "Unicorn" (a French ship in the original; in the English translation part of the fleet of Charles II of England, and a Union Flag has been inserted as the flag flown by the "Unicorn"). When Tintin and the Captain return to Tintin's flat, they find that the model boat has been stolen. Tintin visits Sakharine, accusing him of having stolen it. While he discovers an identical ship in Sakharine's collection, it is evidently a different one, for in this case, the mast has not been broken. The ship carries the letters "UNICORN" on the back as well. When Tintin returns home, he finds that his flat has been ransacked, and while cleaning up he finds a mysterious parchment. He realizes that it must have been hidden within the mainmast broken by Snowy, and subsequently rolled out onto the floor. He guesses that the parchement holds the clue to finding treasure and rushes back to the Captain's flat.

The Captain, meanwhile, has taken out some heirlooms that had belonged to his great ancestor: a cutlass, a hat, and a journal which tells of how in 1676 he defeated the pirates led by Red Rackham. Haddock eagerly reads it out aloud to Tintin, sometimes getting a bit carried away while describing the battle scenes. Tintin himself is so taken in by the story that he does not even bother to take off his raincoat.

The pirate Red Rackham had just stolen some diamonds from a Spanish naval vessel when he engaged Sir Francis Haddock in battle in the West Indies. Although the volleys fired by Sir Francis destroyed Rackham's much smaller ship, the pirates managed to overpower Sir Francis's sailors; all but Sir Francis were either killed or forced to walk the plank. Red Rackham's crew took over the "Unicorn", stowing the jewels and treasure on board. Sir Francis escaped, killed Red Rackham in hand-to-hand combat, and escaped after igniting a long fuse in the munitions hold. As Sir Francis rowed to the safety of an uninhabited island nearby, the "Unicorn" exploded, killing the rest of the pirates.

The boat model which was stolen is just one of three constructed by Sir Francis which hold three parchments which, when placed together, will give the treasure's location. Tintin is later kidnapped by the Bird Brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers who believe that he possesses the parchments. They are behind the theft of Tintin's model, having discovered the second parchment and have figured out that they needed all three to decode the clue to the treasure's location. Tintin later escapes Marlinspike Hall, a country estate owned by the Bird Brothers. The parchments themselves, however, were stolen by a kleptomaniac specializing in wallets (the same pickpocket pursued by Thomson and Thompson, who is eventually cornered with Tintin's help).

By the end of the story, Tintin and Haddock have the parchments, and discover where they will find the treasure, by combining the parchments to read coord|20|37|42|N|70|52|15|W|. The sequel, "Red Rackham's Treasure", continues the story.

Trivia

"The Secret of the Unicorn" was Hergé's personal favourite of all the Tintin albums until the completion of "Tintin in Tibet" in 1960.

There was a historic pirate with a similar name to Red Rackham, John Rackham, best known as the captain of the ship on which sailed the women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. John Rackham was also known for his bright clothes.

External links

* [http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/books/11secret.html The Secret of the Unicorn] at Tintinologist.org