1655. The Golden Age of Piracy. Whilst sailing the Spanish Main, boatswain Lemuel Higgs, of the Hispaniola, is thrown overboard. His crewmates assume him dead, but later in Port Royal they hear rumours of his presence. He is said to have become shadowy, quieter. He does not eat, or drink, or sleep, and from him there appears to emanate a great *power* of some sort, not associable with mortal men.

Thus begins a search. His crewmates seek him across the Caribbean, but no luck. They begin to hear rumours he is back in London. Setting sail for England as soon as they can, they sweep the capital. Suddenly Boatswain Higgs is turning up in this tavern here, in this brothel there, in this butcher’s, in that baker’s. All the time he is doing *something*, but no one is quite sure what, and all the time he is always already somewhere else.

Eventually, most of the crew begin to despair of the search, and either give up, or go mad. Except for one. This man is David Walcott, later Sir David, formerly first mate on the Hispaniola, a great friend of the boatswain (or, *what had used to be* the boatswain), and a practical man, a man of learning. A man of science.

It was Sir David’s express belief that it was through the methods of modern science – and through the methods of modern science alone – that the boatswain could be found. And around him he drew a society of men of learning, like himself, committed to the use of the new experimental method in natural philosophy as applied to finding the boatswain. A society that in 1660 would receive royal patronage. The Royal Society.

And so it has been that for the last 350 years the whole of modern science – and thus the whole of modern life – has been committed to finding boatswain Higgs. Of course, it is now the opinion of our greatest scientific minds that when boatswain Higgs fell overboard, he did die. Or, for all intents and purposes, as far as there is anything that makes anyone a man, he died. As in, he lost his humanity. But he was transformed. Or, to be more precise, he begun a process of transformation. A process that would eventually lead him to become the particle that underlies all reality.

The Higgs Boson.

***

Where are you, boatswain Higgs? Will you return to us? Why are you so elusive? Why do you not want to be found?