- Sir Francis Haddock
Sir Francis Haddock is a
fictional character created by the Belgian cartoonistHergé and appearing in "The Adventures of Tintin " within thecomic book "The Secret of the Unicorn ", first published in1943 . The original French name of the character was le chevalier François de Hadoque.Character history
Sir Francis is an ancestor of the main character
Captain Haddock . He is a sailor and a knight serving under the king, and was awarded by the king with the ownership ofMarlinspike Hall in1695 . Sir Francis was also the commander of three-masted armed navy vessel "The Unicorn".In
1698 "The Unicorn", sailing under the command of Sir Francis, was seized by a group ofpirate s led byRed Rackham . As described in the story "The Secret of the Unicorn ", the crew of "The Unicorn" lost the battle against the pirates. During the battle Sir Francois andRed Rackham were engaged is a duel that ended when apulley knocked Sir Francois unconsciousness.When regaining his consciousness Sir Francis found out that the battle was over and found himself tied to the main mast, and also that his vessel was under the
Red Rackham 's rule. The pirates were busy carrying thetreasure from the sinking pirate vessel on board "The Unicorn", which was rapidly sinking after being damaged in the battle.The pirates sailed "The Unicorn" to a tropical island, and after they had consumed large amounts of
liquor stored onboard "The Unicorn" Sir Francis managed to free himself. Before leaving the ship, however, he set fire to the ship'sgunpowder storage. Upon leaving the gunpowder storage he encounteredRed Rackham and engaged in a duel with the pirate leader, fortunately killing him. Sir Francis managed to escape to the shore with arowboat before the explosion destroyed "The Unicorn", killing all pirates onboard.After three years on the island he was rescued by a passing vessel and returned to
Marlinspike Hall . During his retirement he built threescale model s of "The Unicorn". In each model inside the hollow main mast he placed a piece of paper describing the coordinates of the island and thewreck of "The Unicorn". These models create the basis for two Tintin albums, "The Secret of the Unicorn " and "Red Rackham's Treasure ".
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