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

[Dave Monroe]

On 7/4/12, Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:

> 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)

... astonishingly NOT annotated on the wikis:

Boatswain's Pipe
26; (pronounced "Bo's'n")

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/mason-dixon/alpha/b.html

Boatswain's Pipe
26; (pronounced "Bo's'n"): a two-note whistle used to announce senior
officers coming aboard.

http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=B