The Red Sea Sharks
Encyclopedia
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin
, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé
, featuring young reporter Tintin
as a hero. Its original French title is Coke en stock ("coke
in stock") a codename used by the villainous antagonists of the story for Africa
n slaves.
The Red Sea Sharks is notable for bringing together a large number of characters from previous Tintin adventures, going all the way back to Cigars of the Pharaoh
:
Additionally, Patrash Pasha (Cigars of the Pharaoh
), Sheikh
Bab El Ehr (Land of Black Gold
) and General Tapioca (referred to in The Broken Ear
and appearing later in Tintin and the Picaros
) are all referred to but don't appear.
Bab El Ehr's overthrow of Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab, the Emir
of Khemed.
After watching a movie, Tintin and Captain Haddock round a corner and bump into General Alcazar, who drops his wallet
. Tintin attempts to return it, but the hotel
he claimed to be staying at has never heard of him, and when Tintin calls a phone number found in his wallet, the man refuses to talk to him. When Tintin and Haddock return home, they discover that the Emir's bratty, incorrigibly spoiled son Abdullah has been sent there for protection, along with a colorful entourage of servants and dignitaries who have established a bedouin
-bivouac in the great hall of Marlinspike Hall
. Abdullah proceeds to cause chaos at Marlinspike with his practical jokes.
Thomson and Thompson
inform Tintin that they know of his meeting with Alcazar due to their investigation of an arms dealer called Dawson. They then tell him the name of the real hotel where the General is staying. At the hotel, Tintin and Haddock see Alcazar talking with Dawson, whom Tintin recognises as the corrupt police chief of the international settlement in the blue lotus who he exposed and sent to prison guilty of mingling with opium dealers.
Haddock returns the wallet to Alcazar, while Tintin follows Dawson and overhears him discussing how successful his sale of de Havilland Mosquito
es were in starting a coup d'état
in Khemed. Tintin decides to go to Khemed and rescue the emir, who has been overthrown by Sheikh
Bab El Ehr. Reluctantly, as usual, the Captain agrees to go along, partly because he knows it is his only chance of getting rid of Abdullah, whose practical jokes are getting too much for him. Meanwhile, Dawson, realizing that Tintin is once again meddling in his affairs, resolves to take drastic measures.
At Wadesdah Airport in Khemed, Tintin and Haddock are turned back by customs, while someone (presumably an agent of Dawson) plants a bomb on the plane to "take care of them". The bombing is foiled by an engine fire
, which forces the plane to crash-land minutes before the bomb goes off. Realizing that they best take a lower profile, Tintin and Haddock walk away from the crash site and slip in unobserved at night into Wadesdah. There they meet another old friend, the loquacious Portuguese
merchant Oliveira da Figueira. He helps them escape the city by dressing up as veil
-wearing women. Once outside they meet a guide with horses and ride to the Emir's hideout (modelled on the ancient Jordan
ian city of Petra
).
Their escape is reported however, and a leading figure in the new regime sends out a squad of armored cars and Mosquitoes to intercept them. The officer, Mull Pasha, is in fact Doctor Müller, an enemy whom Tintin fought against in The Black Island
and Land of Black Gold
. Thanks to a military misinterpretation, the Mosquitoes attack their own armored cars instead of Tintin and his friends.
The Emir tells them about the ongoing slave trade run by the Marquis di Gorgonzola
, an international businessman with whom the Emir had a tiff several months ago. The Marquis uses the pilgrimage to Mecca
to capture and enslave African Muslim
travellers. Tintin and Haddock leave for the Red Sea
coast and board a boat for Mecca to investigate. They are attacked by the Mosquitoes again, but Tintin manages to down one with a German StG 44. But their schooner receives critical damage and they end up shipwrecked aboard a raft, along with Piotr Skut, the pilot of the downed plane. They are then picked up by di Gorgonzola's yacht, the Scheherazade (named after the Arab princess
and storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights), which happens to pass by, but di Gorgonzola isolates them from his guests and offloads them the next night to the SS Ramona, a tramp steamer
. Unbeknownst to Tintin and Haddock, the Ramona is one of di Gorgonzola's own ships, used in the slave trade.
That night they are locked into their cabin by Allan, Haddock's former first mate
, who commands the Ramona. A fire breaks out on the Ramona and the crew abandons ship. Tintin and Haddock force their cabin door open and manage to put out the fire, not realizing that the front of the ship was loaded with munitions. They then free a number of black African men,who speak Yoruba
, from a rear hold and discover that they had paid for the voyage to Mecca
, but were intended to be sold as slaves instead. Haddock attempts to explain the situation to them. Initially, many of them don't understand, or refuse to, stubbornly insisting on still going to Mecca. After some discussion, the men come around: an older member of the group recalls how some men from his village never returned from the Hajj
. The Africans agree to help Haddock sail the ship to neutral territory in Djibouti
, while Tintin and Skut attempt to fix the radio, which had been smashed.
Tintin finds a slip of paper in the radio room with an order to deliver "coke", and is puzzled. In shipping, "coke
" would normally refer to a coal
-derived fuel, but none is being carried. They are then approached by a dhow
and take aboard an Arab
who wishes to inspect the coke
, puzzling Haddock, who claims they have none. The man then turns about and starts examining the physical strength of one of the Africans. With the nature of the term coke, a codename for slaves, clear to him now, Haddock furiously confronts the Arab. The inspected Black African manages to thwart the Arab's attempt to stab the Captain, and the slaver is ordered away from the ship, the outraged Haddock yelling insults to him until he is out of earshot, even from a megaphone
.
Di Gorgonzola (who is actually Rastapopoulos
, a member of the international opium
smugglers from Cigars of the Pharaoh
and The Blue Lotus
) finds out from the Arab that Haddock has taken control of the ship, and sends a Type VII U-Boat to attack them. Tintin spots the submarine by accident just prior to attack because of its periscope sticking out. Haddock manages to outmaneuver a number of torpedo
es, but all appears lost when the engines of the ship get stuck in half reverse. At this point the Ramona is saved by the arrival of combat aircraft from a nearby US Navy cruiser, the USS Los Angeles
, whose crew had been radioed by Tintin. The submarine makes one more attempt to destroy the Ramona by attaching a limpet mine
to the front of the boat beside the explosives, but this is foiled when the diver is hit by the Ramonas anchor. A shark swallows the mine and swims away, exploding some time afterwards.
When the Los Angeles attempts to arrest di Gorgonzola afterwords, he fakes his own death by allowing a motorboat which he steers from his yacht to the cruiser to sink while he escapes in an inbuilt mini-submarine. Thinking him dead, Tintin, Haddock and Skut return to Europe to international renown for their efforts in exposing the slave traders. Soon afterwards, the Emir recaptures control of Khemed and recalls Abdullah home. Tintin and the Captain return home to find Nestor
emaciated from Abdullah's stay and an exploding firework in the Captain's chair as a parting gift. And no sooner have they got rid of one pest when another arrives - Jolyon Wagg
.
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
, featuring young reporter Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
as a hero. Its original French title is Coke en stock ("coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
in stock") a codename used by the villainous antagonists of the story for Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n slaves.
The Red Sea Sharks is notable for bringing together a large number of characters from previous Tintin adventures, going all the way back to Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
:
- General Alcazar (The Broken EarThe Broken EarThe Broken Ear is the sixth 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...
and The Seven Crystal BallsThe Seven Crystal BallsThe Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth 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....
); - EmirEmirEmir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
Ben Kalish Ezab and Abdullah (Land of Black GoldLand of Black GoldLand of Black Gold is the fifteenth 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....
); - RastapopoulosRastapopoulosRoberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
(Cigars of the PharaohCigars of the PharaohCigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and The Blue LotusThe Blue LotusThe Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
); - Oliveira da Figueira (Cigars of the PharaohCigars of the PharaohCigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and Land of Black GoldLand of Black GoldLand of Black Gold is the fifteenth 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....
); - Doctor Müller (The Black IslandThe Black IslandThe Black Island is the seventh 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 the hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s...
and Land of Black GoldLand of Black GoldLand of Black Gold is the fifteenth 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....
); - Dawson (The Blue LotusThe Blue LotusThe Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
); - Allan Thompson (Cigars of the PharaohCigars of the PharaohCigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and The Crab with the Golden ClawsThe Crab with the Golden ClawsThe Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth 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...
); - Bianca CastafioreBianca CastafioreBianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
(King Ottokar's SceptreKing Ottokar's SceptreKing Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
, The Seven Crystal BallsThe Seven Crystal BallsThe Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth 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....
and The Calculus AffairThe Calculus AffairThe Calculus Affair is the eighteenth 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....
); - Jolyon WaggJolyon WaggJolyon Wagg is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is an gregarious, simple, and overbearing man who enters the story by barging in uninvited...
(The Calculus AffairThe Calculus AffairThe Calculus Affair is the eighteenth 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....
).
Additionally, Patrash Pasha (Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
), Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Bab El Ehr (Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth 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....
) and General Tapioca (referred to in The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth 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...
and appearing later in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
) are all referred to but don't appear.
Storyline
The Red Sea Sharks is an adventure in which Tintin investigates the supporters of SheikhSheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Bab El Ehr's overthrow of Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab, the Emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
of Khemed.
After watching a movie, Tintin and Captain Haddock round a corner and bump into General Alcazar, who drops his wallet
Wallet
A wallet, or billfold, is a small, flat case that is used to carry personal items such as cash, credit cards, identification documents , photographs, business cards and other paper or laminated cards...
. Tintin attempts to return it, but the hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
he claimed to be staying at has never heard of him, and when Tintin calls a phone number found in his wallet, the man refuses to talk to him. When Tintin and Haddock return home, they discover that the Emir's bratty, incorrigibly spoiled son Abdullah has been sent there for protection, along with a colorful entourage of servants and dignitaries who have established a bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
-bivouac in the great hall of Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
. Abdullah proceeds to cause chaos at Marlinspike with his practical jokes.
Thomson and Thompson
Thomson and Thompson
Thomson and Thompson are fictional characters in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Thomson and Thompson are detectives of Scotland Yard, and are as incompetent as they are necessary comic relief...
inform Tintin that they know of his meeting with Alcazar due to their investigation of an arms dealer called Dawson. They then tell him the name of the real hotel where the General is staying. At the hotel, Tintin and Haddock see Alcazar talking with Dawson, whom Tintin recognises as the corrupt police chief of the international settlement in the blue lotus who he exposed and sent to prison guilty of mingling with opium dealers.
Haddock returns the wallet to Alcazar, while Tintin follows Dawson and overhears him discussing how successful his sale of de Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
es were in starting a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in Khemed. Tintin decides to go to Khemed and rescue the emir, who has been overthrown by Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Bab El Ehr. Reluctantly, as usual, the Captain agrees to go along, partly because he knows it is his only chance of getting rid of Abdullah, whose practical jokes are getting too much for him. Meanwhile, Dawson, realizing that Tintin is once again meddling in his affairs, resolves to take drastic measures.
At Wadesdah Airport in Khemed, Tintin and Haddock are turned back by customs, while someone (presumably an agent of Dawson) plants a bomb on the plane to "take care of them". The bombing is foiled by an engine fire
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
, which forces the plane to crash-land minutes before the bomb goes off. Realizing that they best take a lower profile, Tintin and Haddock walk away from the crash site and slip in unobserved at night into Wadesdah. There they meet another old friend, the loquacious Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
merchant Oliveira da Figueira. He helps them escape the city by dressing up as veil
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
-wearing women. Once outside they meet a guide with horses and ride to the Emir's hideout (modelled on the ancient Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian city of Petra
Petra
Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...
).
Their escape is reported however, and a leading figure in the new regime sends out a squad of armored cars and Mosquitoes to intercept them. The officer, Mull Pasha, is in fact Doctor Müller, an enemy whom Tintin fought against in The Black Island
The Black Island
The Black Island is the seventh 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 the hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s...
and Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth 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....
. Thanks to a military misinterpretation, the Mosquitoes attack their own armored cars instead of Tintin and his friends.
The Emir tells them about the ongoing slave trade run by the Marquis di Gorgonzola
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
, an international businessman with whom the Emir had a tiff several months ago. The Marquis uses the pilgrimage to Mecca
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
to capture and enslave African Muslim
Islam in Africa
From its beginning, Islam has been a central feature in Africa. Africa was the first continent into which Islam expanded, and it has become an integral part of many African cultures and histories. According to World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity...
travellers. Tintin and Haddock leave for the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
coast and board a boat for Mecca to investigate. They are attacked by the Mosquitoes again, but Tintin manages to down one with a German StG 44. But their schooner receives critical damage and they end up shipwrecked aboard a raft, along with Piotr Skut, the pilot of the downed plane. They are then picked up by di Gorgonzola's yacht, the Scheherazade (named after the Arab princess
Scheherazade
Scheherazade , sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād is a legendary Persian queen and the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights.-Narration :...
and storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights), which happens to pass by, but di Gorgonzola isolates them from his guests and offloads them the next night to the SS Ramona, a tramp steamer
Tramp steamer
A ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call. As opposed to freight liners, tramp ships trade on the spot market with no fixed schedule or itinerary/ports-of-call...
. Unbeknownst to Tintin and Haddock, the Ramona is one of di Gorgonzola's own ships, used in the slave trade.
That night they are locked into their cabin by Allan, Haddock's former first mate
The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth 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...
, who commands the Ramona. A fire breaks out on the Ramona and the crew abandons ship. Tintin and Haddock force their cabin door open and manage to put out the fire, not realizing that the front of the ship was loaded with munitions. They then free a number of black African men,who speak Yoruba
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
, from a rear hold and discover that they had paid for the voyage to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, but were intended to be sold as slaves instead. Haddock attempts to explain the situation to them. Initially, many of them don't understand, or refuse to, stubbornly insisting on still going to Mecca. After some discussion, the men come around: an older member of the group recalls how some men from his village never returned from the Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
. The Africans agree to help Haddock sail the ship to neutral territory in Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
, while Tintin and Skut attempt to fix the radio, which had been smashed.
Tintin finds a slip of paper in the radio room with an order to deliver "coke", and is puzzled. In shipping, "coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
" would normally refer to a coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-derived fuel, but none is being carried. They are then approached by a dhow
Dhow
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...
and take aboard an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
who wishes to inspect the coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
, puzzling Haddock, who claims they have none. The man then turns about and starts examining the physical strength of one of the Africans. With the nature of the term coke, a codename for slaves, clear to him now, Haddock furiously confronts the Arab. The inspected Black African manages to thwart the Arab's attempt to stab the Captain, and the slaver is ordered away from the ship, the outraged Haddock yelling insults to him until he is out of earshot, even from a megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
.
Di Gorgonzola (who is actually Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
, a member of the international opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
smugglers from Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
) finds out from the Arab that Haddock has taken control of the ship, and sends a Type VII U-Boat to attack them. Tintin spots the submarine by accident just prior to attack because of its periscope sticking out. Haddock manages to outmaneuver a number of torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
es, but all appears lost when the engines of the ship get stuck in half reverse. At this point the Ramona is saved by the arrival of combat aircraft from a nearby US Navy cruiser, the USS Los Angeles
USS Los Angeles (CA-135)
The third USS Los Angeles was a Baltimore class heavy cruiser, laid down by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, on 28 July 1943 and launched on 20 August 1944. She was sponsored by Mrs. Fletcher Bowron and commissioned on 22 July 1945, with Capt. John A...
, whose crew had been radioed by Tintin. The submarine makes one more attempt to destroy the Ramona by attaching a limpet mine
Limpet mine
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets; they are so named because of their superficial similarity to the limpet, a type of mollusk....
to the front of the boat beside the explosives, but this is foiled when the diver is hit by the Ramonas anchor. A shark swallows the mine and swims away, exploding some time afterwards.
When the Los Angeles attempts to arrest di Gorgonzola afterwords, he fakes his own death by allowing a motorboat which he steers from his yacht to the cruiser to sink while he escapes in an inbuilt mini-submarine. Thinking him dead, Tintin, Haddock and Skut return to Europe to international renown for their efforts in exposing the slave traders. Soon afterwards, the Emir recaptures control of Khemed and recalls Abdullah home. Tintin and the Captain return home to find Nestor
Nestor (Tintin character)
Nestor is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the long-suffering butler of Marlinspike Hall....
emaciated from Abdullah's stay and an exploding firework in the Captain's chair as a parting gift. And no sooner have they got rid of one pest when another arrives - Jolyon Wagg
Jolyon Wagg
Jolyon Wagg is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is an gregarious, simple, and overbearing man who enters the story by barging in uninvited...
.
Alleged racism
The Red Sea Sharks has been criticised for stereotypical portrayal of Africans; although obviously good-hearted, the black characters are shown as being somewhat simple. However, it should also be noted that foreign Europeans, throughout the Tintin series, also display a similarly ungrammatical accents (e.g. Skut). Others have criticised Haddock's calling them "addle-pated lumps of anthracite," but Hergé did not intend to be racist - Captain Haddock is well known for his frequently colourful language, which comprises almost 200 insults in total. Hergé obviously had a strong contempt for slavery, as evidenced by strongly negative emphasis placed on the villainy of slave traders (supplemented by the scene in which Captain Haddock hurls his peculiar brand of expletives at a slaver leaving their ship).External links
- The Red Sea Sharks at Tintinologist.org