Translation Differences
A joke in the book involves Thomson and Thompson re-doing Captain Haddock's navigational calculations, but their ignorance causes them to place the ship in a fanciful location far from its real one. In the original French version, Captain Haddock mockingly explains that they place them in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Methuen English translation alters this to Westminster Abbey, London; America's Golden Press translation alters it to St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.
When making their way back to the ship with the idol of Sir Francis, Haddock, his hand trailing in the water, recites the opening lines of "The Galley of Count Arnaldos" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the original French, he quotes from Alphonse de Lamartine's "Le Lac" ("The Lake").
Read more about this topic: Red Rackham's Treasure
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