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 , Jud Süß . Hergé chose the name " Haddock " for the character after his wife , Germaine Remi , mentioned " a sad English fish " during a meal . The inclusion of the Japanese police detective Bunji 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 Peyré , 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 .