Davy Jones' Locker
From Free net encyclopedia
Davy Jones' Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea — the resting place of drowned seamen. It is used as a euphemism for death at sea (e.g. to be "sent to Davy Jones' Locker"); Davy Jones is a nickname (used primarily by sailors) for what would be the devil of the seas.
Origin
The earliest known reference to Davy Jones occurs in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett, published in 1751:
- This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, ship-wrecks, and other disasters to which sea-faring life is exposed, warning the devoted wretch of death and woe. [1]
He is described as having saucer eyes, three rows of teeth, horns, a tail, and blue smoke coming from his nostrils.
The term appears to have been common among sailors, as the name Davy Jones appears often in popular nautical literature.
As is common with slang, the exact origin of "Davy Jones" is hard to discover. These explanations have been proposed: [2] [3]
- A pub owner named David Jones who used to incapacitate hapless drinkers in his ale locker, and send them off aboard ships.
- Duffer Jones, a notoriously myopic sailor who often found himself overboard.
- Davy comes from Duppy, a West Indian term for ghost, or from Saint David, also known as Dewi, the patron saint of Wales, while Jones comes from the prophet Jonah.
- A euphemism for a "Devil Jonah"; Jonah being a term referring to any bad luck on the ocean.
- David Jones, a pirate on the Indian Ocean in the 1630s. - Jan Rogoziński, The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates, Ware, Hertfordshire, 1997
The last two do not explain the locker. The name may have originated in Wales, as David Jones is a common name there.
In popular culture
- Davey Jones is the villain of the upcoming Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where he will be the captain of a ship featured in other nautical lore, The Flying Dutchman, and his appearance is similar to H.P. Lovecraft's slumbering submarine god Cthulhu. In the movie, Captain Jack Sparrow owes a debt to Davey Jones for unexplained reasons, and the plot of the movie is his race to pay it off or else forfeit his soul. Davey Jones also controls the loyalties of "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, and is believed to have Captain Barbossa as his prisoner.
