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The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth title of The Adventures of Tintin. Its original French title is Coke en stock ("coke in stock") a codename used by the villainous antagonists of the story for African 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.

Plot[]

Tintin and Captain Haddock watch a film whose lead actor reminded Tintin of his old friend General Alcazar who they soon bump into. However, the general was in a hurry. Returning to Marlinspike Hall, they find that Abdullah, the mischievous son of Emir Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab is sent there to stay at Marlinspike for protection. Detectives Thomson and Thompson visit the next morning, informing Tintin that Alcazar is seeking to purchase military aircraft from J. M. Dawson. Investigating further, Tintin discovers that Dawson has also sold military aircraft to the Emir's nemesis, Sheikh Bab El Ehr, but an alarm clock that Abdullah placed in his coat goes off, and although he escapes unscathed, Dawson realises Tintin is meddling in his affairs.

Tintin reads a newspaper which shocks him: the Emir has been overthrown by Bab El Ehr. Realising that the only way to be rid of Abdullah is to restore the Emir's control of Khemed, Tintin, Haddock, and Snowy travel to Khemed. Simultaneously, Dawson arranges for somebody to place a bomb inside the plane's cargo hold, and officials deny the three any access to Khemed. While flying back, the trio narrowly survive the bomb blast, and are able to slip into the city of Wadeshah unobserved. There they meet an old friend, the Portuguese merchant Oliveira da Figueira, who helps them to escape the city and ride on horses to the Emir's hideout in the Jabel mountains. During the journey, they evade armoured cars and fighter planes ordered to intercept them by "Mull Pasha", who is actually Tintin's old enemy, Dr. Müller, when the fighter jets mistakenly destroy the armoured vehicles after the pilots believe that the ground units are enemy forces.

The Emir welcomes Tintin and Haddock, revealing that there is an ongoing slave trade through Khemed that is operated by the international businessman the Marquis di Gorgonzola, who falsely offers transport to African Muslims on the pilgrimage to Mecca and then sells them into slavery. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy leave for the Red Sea coast and board a sambuk for Mecca. They are attacked by fighter planes before Tintin shoots one down and rescues its mercenary Estonian pilot, Piotr Skut. The four are picked up by di Gorgonzola's yacht, the Scheherazade, but are soon offloaded onto the SS Ramona, a tramp steamer. It then transpires that di Gorgonzola is in fact another of Tintin's old adversaries, Roberto Rastapopoulos. The Ramona is one of Rastapopoulos' slave trading ships, and when a fire breaks out aboard it during the night, the ship's commander Allan and his crew flee, leaving Tintin, Haddock, Snowy and Skut aboard along with a consignment of African muslims.

With Haddock taking on the ship's captaincy, they are successfully able to extinguish the fire. However, Rastapopoulos orders a submarine called Shark to destroy the Ramona, with the ship taking evasive maneuvers to survive, ultimately being rescued by the cruiser USS Los Angeles which attacks the submarine with depth charges. A last-ditch attempt by the submarine to destroy the Ramona with limpet mines results in the diver dropping the mine after Haddock, dropping the ship anchor, unintentionally hits the diver's head with the anchor and a shark swallows the mine, before exploding an hour later.

The Los Angeles chases down the Scheherazade and attempts to capture di Gorgonzola, but he fakes his own death and escapes via a mini-submarine. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy return to Marlinspike and learn that the Emir has recaptured Khemed and that Abdullah can return home. Their relaxation is cut short by Jolyon Wagg, who has arranged to use Marlinspike for an auto rally.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

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  • Arabair

Vehicles[]

The Adventures of Tintin

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