The Adventures Of Tintin Secret Of The Unicorn Serial Number -

Haddock squinted. “That? Just a builder’s mark. UN-7. Probably the toymaker’s batch number.”

Behind it, a fissure in the cliff.

That night, Tintin couldn’t sleep. He stared at the photographs of the three parchments. Sir Francis Haddock’s log entries were clear: Latitude. Longitude. Three keys. But the number UN-7 scratched at his brain. The Adventures Of Tintin Secret Of The Unicorn Serial Number

Tintin carefully removed the stern section. Inside the cavity where the rudder chain ran, he found not parchment, but a tiny brass cylinder, sealed with wax. He cracked it open. Haddock squinted

“During Sir Francis’s time,” Calculus said, tapping a page, “the crown allowed private shipyards to use a code. ‘U’ stood for ‘Unicorn-class’—a fast frigate with a shallow draught. And the number…” He pushed his spectacles up. “The number was not the hull number. It was the chart number .” He stared at the photographs of the three parchments

They crawled inside. The cave smelled of salt and ancient wood. And there, wedged into a stone cradle, was a final model—smaller, crude, made of driftwood. It had no sails, no cannons. Only a single serial number carved into its hull: .

“Everything,” Tintin murmured. He gently lifted the mainmast. A tiny, almost invisible engraving caught the lamplight. “Look here, Captain.”