Just as he did for everything he introduced in his drawings, Hergé researched documentation for his submarines. Professor Calculus’ exploration submarine found in Red Rackham’s Treasure is the most famous of Hergé’s submersibles.

According to Hergé himself, his submersible was inspired by Auguste Piccard’s bathyscaph. (Numa Sadoul, op.cit., p.165). Coincidentally, this submarine happened to have a relative invented by an American scientist.