Davy Jones' Locker

[Admiral8Q]

Has anyone else wondered where the term "Davy Jones' locker" comes from? I'm getting frustrated about not finding alot about this heavily used term, especially in POTC. I am looking for the origin of Davy Jones’ locker. I know there is a nautical connotation, reference made to pirates and swashbucklers and the like, but have been unable to get a good clear origin of the term.

I did find this:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We do know that the phrase goes back at least two centuries, since the first clear reference comes from Tobias Smollett, who wrote in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle in 1751 that: “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”. So his locker is the bottom of the sea, the ocean’s depths.

So much for facts. There are various stories about the origin of the term, usually attempting to identify a real David Jones. One of this name was said to run a pub in London, with a neat sideline—a sort of privatised press gang—of drugging unwary patrons and storing them in his ale lockers at the back of the pub until they could be taken on board some ship. Another story tries to identify him with Jonah of the Old Testament, who—you will recall—spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish; but Jonah survived. Yet a third theory says, as you suggest, that Davy Jones was a fearsome pirate, who loved to make his captives walk the plank, so they ended up at the bottom of the sea; but nobody, so far as I know, has identified this alarming outlaw.

We can be fairly certain that all these stories are folklore. The real Davy Jones—if there ever was one—remains obscure.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Anyone have any information on this term, and where it comes from? <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />

 

[sampow]

Someone else actually asked the same question a little while ago. Prior to that I found a cool little site with all sorts of naval terms and explanations and this is what they had to say about Davy Jones' locker:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Davy Jones - Davy Jones and His Locker American Sailors would rather not talk about Davy Jones and his infamous locker. They are ready enough to refer to him and his dwelling place, but just leave him an indefinite, unbodied charachter who keeps to his place at the bottom of the sea. Pressed, they will profess that they do not know what he looks like, his locker is to them something like an ordinary sea chest or coffin, always open to catch any sailor unfortunate enough to find himself in the sea. Some English sailors incline to the belief that his name is a corruption of Duffer Jones, a clumsy fellow who frequently found himself overboard. The only time Davy comes to life is in the ceremony of crossing the line. Then his is usually impersonalted by the smallest sailor on board, given a hump, horns and a tail, and his features made as ugly as possible. He is swinish, dressed in rags and seaweed, and shambles along in the wake of the sea king, neptune, playing evil tricks upon his fellow sailors. Old sailors, rather than speak of the devil, called him Deva, Davy or Taffy, the thief of the evil spirit; and Jones is from Jonah, whose locker was the whale's belly. Jonah was often called Jonas, and as Davy Jones, the enemy of all living sailors, he has become the mariners' evil angel. To be cast into the sea and sink is to fall into his locker and have the lid popped down on one. It is generally agreed that the Christian sailor's body goes to Davy Jones's locker, but his soul, if he is a proper sailorman, goes to Fiddlers' Green. From the book A Sailor's Treasury by Frank Shay, Copyright 1951.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

If you're interested, the site URL is:

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3883/trivia.htm" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3883/trivia.htm</a>

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

 

[Gunner]

Ya, even I was here when that was asked (ie. last year <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blah:" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> ).
First time I actually read that bit tho <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pirate2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="pirate2.gif" />

 

[Admiral8Q]

Great! Thanks Sampow! Very interesting!

 

[Drunken Pirate]

Fiddler's Green? That's an Irish pub in Orlando.

 

[DeCuervo]

Then his is usually impersonalted by the smallest sailor on board, given a hump, horns and a tail, and his features made as ugly as possible. He is swinish, dressed in rags and seaweed, and shambles along in the wake of the sea king, neptune, playing evil tricks upon his fellow sailors.

This that is qouted above is still a US Navy/Marine Corps tradition that I have personally taken part in during my tour in the Marines. Whenever a US Naval vessel crosses the equator the youngest and smallest that have never been across the line are made to do the things qouted above to turn them into hardened mariners, or "shell backs" as we call it. Pretty cool that old Naval traditions are still alive isn't it?

 

[Obsidian]

When I was I the Navy down here is Aus they still had the "hazing" tradition of making sailors crawl around the deck of the ship in one or another filthy substance (usually garbage), and was once told by a sailor form a US ship that they did it to, and their ships are alot bigger than our little tug boats.

Our navy can't do that anymore after a young lass was put into a wheelie bin full of trash and had a panic attack when the lid was lowered.

I never had to do it myself, I've never crossed THAT line, plenty of others but never that one <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />

 

[DeCuervo]

we aren't suppossed to, but I think the brass still knows it happens. If they took away our tradtions they'd lower morale to a dangerous level. It's degrading when you go thru it, but when you look back on it you see that it helped build esprit de corps because you know 1000's before you have done it too and gives you a sense of history and belonging since you know the people who made you go through it went through it themselves. Nothing builds a team more than shared adversary.