Davy Jones' Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors and shipwrecks. It is used as a euphemism for drowning or shipwrecks in which the sailors' and ships' remains are consigned to the depths of the ocean. The origins of the name of Davy Jones, the sailors' devil, are unclear, with a 19th-century dictionary tracing Davy Jones to a "ghost of Jonah". Other explanations of this nautical superstition have been put forth, including an incompetent sailor or a pub owner who kidnapped sailors.
History
The earliest known reference of the negative connotation of Davy Jones occurs in the Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts, by the author Daniel Defoe, published in 1726 in London. An early description of Davy Jones occurs in Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, published in 1751: In the story, Jones is described as having saucer eyes, three rows of teeth, horns, a tail, and blue smoke coming from his nostrils.
Proposed origins of the tale
The origin of the tale of Davy Jones is unclear, and many conjectural or folkloric explanations have been told:
'The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' by Francis Gros, published in 1811, includes the definitions: "DAVID JONES. The devil, the spirit of the sea: called Necken in the north countries, such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden" and "DAVID JONES' LOCKER. The sea".
The 1898 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable connects Davy to the West Indianduppy and Jones to biblical Jonah:
David Jones, a real pirate, although not a very well-known one, living on the Indian Ocean in the 1630s.
Duffer Jones, a notoriously myopic sailor who often found himself overboard.
A British pub owner who supposedly threw drunken sailors into his ale locker and then gave them to be drafted on any ship.
Linguists consider it most plausible that Davy was inspired by Saint David of Wales, whose name was often invoked by Welsh sailors, and Jones by the Biblical Jonah.
Reputation
Not all traditions dealing with Davy Jones are fearful. In traditions associated with sailors crossing the Equatorial line, there was a "raucous and rowdy" initiation presided over by those who had crossed the line before, known as shellbacks, or Sons of Neptune. The eldest shellback was called King Neptune, and Davy Jones would be re-enacted as his first assistant.
Use in media
20th century
The 1959 Broadway musicalDavy Jones' Locker with Bil Baird's marionettes had a two-week run at the Morosco Theatre. In the 1960s television series The Monkees episode "Hitting The High Seas", the character Davy Jones receives special treatment while kidnapped in a ship as he claims to be related to "The Original" Davy Jones, his grandfather. Meanwhile, his fellow band members are held hostage, leading to various humorous situations. The fact that Jones the musician shared a name with the legendary seafarer has itself led to a number of puns swapping the two in the decades that followed. In the cartoon "The Haunted Ship", from the Aesop's Fables series produced by the Van Beuren animation studios, Davy Jones is depicted as a living skeleton wearing a pirate's bicorne.
21st century
The concept of Davy Jones was conflated with the legend of the Flying Dutchman in the Pirates of the Caribbeanfilm series, in which Davy Jones's locker is portrayed as a purgatory place of punishment for those who crossed Davy Jones. Jones is portrayed as a captain assigned to ferry those drowned at sea to the afterlife before he corrupted his purpose out of anger at his betrayal by his lover, the sea-goddess Calypso. Davy Jones is portrayed in the movie as an enigma of the sea, featuring octopus arms for a beard and crab claw for a hand. The origins of Davy Jones and Calypso are revealed in the stand-alone novella "Davy Jones & the Heart of Darkness". The Scottish origins are consistent with the legend, but this novella includes Davy's training aboard Inferno with Charon, the ferryman of Hades. The tale is written by Dave Montalbano and illustrated by Rachel Galvin. The term has also been used repeatedly in the animated TV seriesSpongeBob SquarePants to represent an actual locker in the bottom of the sea where Davy Jones keeps his gym socks. French singerNolwenn Leroy recorded a song titled "Davy Jones" for her 2012 album Ô Filles de l'Eau. The English version contains the lines: "Davy Jones, oh Davy Jones / Where they gonna rest your bones / Down in the deep blue sea / Down in the deep blue sea..." American surf-rock/punk band Rusty Shipp released a song in late 2012 titled "Davy Jones Ain't Got Nothin' On Me", which makes several references to Davy Jones's Locker, and also is believed to make reference to the "Flying Dutchman" myth. This is especially prevalent in the lines: "all of the sudden, a ghost ship appears/with a crew of souls whose singing I hear".
