Red Rackham's Treasure (French: Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge) is the twelfth 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. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin books to directly carry on the story of the preceding title. It is notable for the first appearance of the eccentric and deaf but ingenious Professor Cuthbert Calculus. According to Michael Farr's Tintin: The Complete Companion, it is also the best-selling book in the Tintin series.

Storyline

In The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin and Captain Haddock discovered the location of the Unicorn, a cruise ship which was blown up in the West Indies by Captain Haddock's ancestor Sir Francis Haddock in 1676. After destroying the vessel, Sir Francis fled to a nearby island. Tintin and Captain Haddock believe that the pirate's treasure is in the remains of the sunken Unicorn.

Tintin and the Captain hire the Sirius, a boat under Haddock's command, to search for the said treasure. As the crew prepare for the search, their plans are discovered and publicized by the press, forcing Tintin and Haddock to deal with numerous strangers claiming to be Rackham's descendants and insisting on a share of the treasure. They are quickly driven away by Haddock, whose claim to be the descendant of the man who killed Red Rackham has more weight.

Another petitioner is Professor Cuthbert Calculus, an eccentric and largely deaf inventor who offers the use of a special shark-shaped, electrically powered one-man submarine to help search for the sunken ship without being bothered by the numerous sharks in the area. The treasure hunters turn him down and later set off for the trip.

Before Tintin and the Captain clear the port, their friends, Thomson and Thompson intercept them with orders to join the crew to protect the treasure hunters from the possible threat of Max Bird, a rival treasure hunter who escaped from prison. (Ultimately, Bird is never seen or mentioned again, making him a MacGuffin for getting the detectives on board the ship). Shortly after the departure, Tintin and Haddock discover that Calculus has stowed away on board (in a lifeboat, complete with bedclothes;pillow and blanket stolen from the Thompson twins cabin over which they are shown quarreling; and a tin of biscuits which the ship's cook had blamed Snowy for swiping from the galley). The professor has stashed the unassembled parts of his submarine in the hold--removing the Captain's crates of whisky in the process. Despite initially threatening to throw Calculus into the hold on bread and water, Haddock grudgingly decides to keep him along for the trip....

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