The Pachacamac is a cargo ship that is first mentioned in The Seven Crystal Balls and appears in Prisoners of the Sun.
Role in Book(s)[]
In The Seven Crystal Balls, this was the ship used to capture Professor Calculus after he was kidnapped by Rupac Inca Huaco and a few other associates as it was thought he committed sacrilege against the ancient Incan king Rascar Capac and the last remaining Incas by wearing a sacred bracelet that was extracted from Capac's tomb prior. Subsequently, Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Snowy set off to Callao, Peru where the ship would be arriving at. When they arrived in Callao and came across the Pachacamac at port, it was reported that the ship was carrying diseases on board, resulting in quarantine, but really this was just a cover-up so the ship could not make any closer contact with the port's docks. During nighttime, Tintin managed to get on board of the ship and found Calculus in one of its bunkers, Huaco identifies him when he turns on the lights inside and almost has him additionally captured, but Tintin succeeds in escaping and later oversees the abandoning of the ship by its crew. The ship does not appear or is ever referenced again in any further installments.
Trivia[]
- The name of the ship comes from the Pachacamac temple, an ancient site that once housed the Inca Sun god Pacha Kamaq.
- The ship is based on the Victory class, a World War II-Era series of naval transport vessels first used during the final years of the war. It later became a very popular class for non-military cargo transport by various companies in the mid twentieth-century until container cargo transport was being developed and introduced during the early to mid 1960's.
- The ship is featured as a level in the video game adaptation of Prisoners of the Sun on selected platforms.