Anyone who has read the Adventures of Tintin by Hergé will have no doubt enjoyed the strange but colourful exclamations and bizarre insults hurled by the irascible and often inebriated Captain Haddock at his foe, phrases such as “blistering barnacles” and “thundering typhoons”. But where did these quirky phrases come from and do they have any historical precedent?  Using digital resources at Canterbury Christ Church University Library, I set out on my own adventure (minus wire fox terrier) to find out.