The Boatswain Mr. Higgs, and a "string theory" of sorts?

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

They are in the southern Latitudes at last, hence the need for  
Awnings,? the shipboard routine settl'd into, the Boatswain, Mr.  
Higgs, turning ev'ryone to upon the Project of tidying up the work of  
the Riggers at Plymouth, who've left far too many Ends untuck'd for  
this Deck-Tyrant, born under the sign of Virgo, so obsessive about  
neatness in Knot-work, as to provide a source of Amusement for the  
Captain, who finds him an ideal Subject to practice being insane upon.  
"A Phiz of Doom! we can't have this! Worse than idle Whistling!" Mr.  
Higgs obliges
  the section not on Watch to attend Instruction in Lashings,  
Seizings, the art of making a Turk's Head that might fool a Harem  
Girl. "You may think no one'll get close enough to see it, but a  
Thousand details, each nearly invisible, all working together, can  
mean the difference between a ship that goes warping and kedging in to  
a Foreign Port, and one that Makes an Entrance. And which will the  
Scoundrels think of meddling with first, eh? Now I want to see each of  
ye hauling me taut a Matthew Walker, that England shall be proud of,"?  
implying that somewhere there is a Royal Museum of Splices, Hitches,  
and Bends, where their Work may one day lie upon Display. (MD 54-55)