 The serial introduced the character of Captain Haddock . Haddock made his first appearance in Le Soir adjacent to an advert for the anti @-@ Semitic German film , <unk> <unk> . Hergé chose the name " Haddock " for the character after his wife , <unk> <unk> , mentioned " a sad English fish " during a meal . The inclusion of the Japanese police detective <unk> Kuraki as an ally of Tintin 's in this story was probably designed to counterbalance Hergé 's portrayal of the Japanese as the antagonists in his earlier story , The Blue Lotus , particularly given that the occupying government was allied with Japan at the time . The use of Morocco as a setting was likely influenced by The White Squadron by French writer Joseph <unk> , which Hergé had read and seen the film in 1936 . The depiction of the French Foreign Legion in North Africa was possibly influenced by P. C. Wren 's novel Beau Geste ( 1925 ) or its cinematic adaptations in 1926 , 1928 , and 1939 . 
