Davy Jones' Locker
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Davy Jones' Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea — the resting place of drowned seamen.
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.[1] (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dav1.htm)
The phrase Davy Jones appears often in popular nautical literature. There is no reason not to assume the term was common among sailors for many years.
Variations
- Davy Jones is sailor slang for the evil spirits of the ocean.
- Davy's Locker or Davy Jones' Locker is the deep ocean's bottom.
- To be sent to Davy's Locker is to perish at sea.
- To send someone to Davy Jones is to kill them.
- To see you to Davy Jones is a threat to kill someone.
- To be in Davy's Grip mean to be close to death or frightened.
- To have the Davies or the Joneseys means to be frightened
- To awaken Davy or awaken Davy Jones is to cause a storm
Origin
David Jones is a common name in Wales, but as with slangs is common, the origin of the phrase as a spirit of the deep is hard to discover. These explanations have been expressed:
- A pub owner named David Jones who used to incapacitate hapless drinkers in his ale locker, and send them off aboard ships.
- Davy comes from Duffy (West Indian term for ghost) or St. David (patron saint of Welsh sailors) and Jones from prophet Jonah.
- Duffer Jones, a notoriously myopic sailor who often found himself overboard.
External links
- Yahoo! on the origin of the phrase (http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20000831.html)
- India's Hindu Newspaper August 23, 2003 on the origin of the phrase (http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/edu/2003/08/26/stories/2003082600070301.htm)
- Davey Jones's Locker — a seafloor and coastal research laboratory (http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/djl/)