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{{other uses|Davy Jones' Locker (disambiguation)}}▼
{{short description|Sailor legend}}
▲{{other uses|Davy Jones' Locker (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox fictional location
| name = Davy Jones' locker
| colour = #C0C0C0
| image = Punch Davy Jones's Locker.png
| imagesize =
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}}
 
[[File:Davy Jones by George Cruikshank.png|thumb|Davy Jones pictured by [[George Cruikshank]] in 1832, as described by [[Tobias Smollett]] in ''[[The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle]]''<ref>However, presentedthe heredepicted character is a fake, created by Pipes, Perry and Pickle to scare Mr. Trunnion; see: {{cite book |title= The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle|last= Smollett|first= Tobias|author-link= Tobias Smollett|year= 1751|publisher= D. Wilson|location= London|page= 66}}</ref>]]
'''Davy Jones's locker''' is a [[metaphor]] for the oceanic [[abyss (religion)|abyss]], the final resting place of drowned sailors and travellers. It is a [[euphemism]] for [[drowning]] or shipwrecks in which the sailors' and ships' remains are consigned to the depths of the ocean (to be ''sent to Davy Jones' Locker'').
 
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 and the fish|Jonah]]". Other explanations of this [[Sailors' superstitions|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 ''The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts'', byattributed authorto [[Daniel Defoe]], published in 1726 in London.<ref name="Green's Dictionary of Slang">{{cite web |last1=Green |first1=Jonathan |title=Davy Jones's locker, n. — Green's Dictionary of Slang |url=https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/bymlveq |website=greensdictofslang.com |publisher=Chambers |access-date=3 October 2024}}</ref>
 
{{quoteblockquote|Some of Loe's Company said, They would look out some things, and give me along with me when I was going away; but Ruffel told them, they should not, for he would toss them all into Davy Jones's Locker if they did.<ref name="Four Years">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWsBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA89|page=89|title=The four years voyages of capt. George Roberts. Written by himself|last=Defoe|first=Daniel|year=1726}}</ref>|}}
 
And elsewhere in ''The Four Years Voyages'':
 
{{blockquote|But now they had no Goods at all, he believed, having disposed of them all, either by giving them to other Prizes, &c. or heaving the rest into David Jones's Locker (i.e. the Sea).<ref name="Four Years" />}}
 
An early description of Davy Jones occurs in [[Tobias Smollett]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle]]'', published in 1751:<ref name="fable">{{cite web|last=Brewer|first=E. Cobham|date=1898-01-01|title=Davy Jones's Locker.|url=http://www.bartleby.com/81/4705.html|access-date=2006-04-30|work=Dictionary of Phrase and Fable}}</ref>
 
{{quoteblockquote|This same Davy Jones, according to 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.<ref name="fable"/>|}}
 
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<ref name="slang">{{cite book|last1=Farmer|first1=John S|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lUYVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129|title=A Dictionary of slang and Colloquial English|last2=Henley|first2=William Ernest|year=1927|pages=128–129}}</ref> or folkloric<ref name="mq">{{cite web|author=Michael Quinion|year=1999|title=World Wide Words|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dav1.htm|access-date=15 January 2013}}</ref> explanations have been told:▼
{{quote box|
''"During many years of seafaring life, I have frequently considered the origin of this phrase, and have now arrived at the conclusion, that it is derived from the scriptural account of the prophet Jonah. The word 'locker', on board of ship, generally means the place where any particular thing is retained or kept, as "bread locker", "shot locker", "chain locker", &c. In the sublime ode in the second chapter of the Book of Jonah, we find that the prophet, praying for deliverance, described his situation in the following words:- "in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about; the depth closed me round about; the earth with her bars was about me." The sea, then, might not be misappropriately termed by a rude mariner, Jonah's locker- that is, the place where Jonah was kept of confined. Jonah's locker, in time, might be readily corrupted to Jones's locker; and Davy, as a very common Welsh accompaniment of the equally Welsh name, Jones, added, the true derivation of the phrase having been forgotten."▼
 
▲''"{{quote box|During many years of seafaring life, I have frequently considered the origin of this phrase, and have now arrived at the conclusion, that it is derived from the scriptural account of the prophet Jonah. The word 'locker', on board of ship, generally means the place where any particular thing is retained or kept, as "bread locker", "shot locker", "chain locker", &c. In the sublime ode in the second chapter of the Book of Jonah, we find that the prophet, praying for deliverance, described his situation in the following words:- —"in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about; the depth closed me round about; the earth with her bars was about me." The sea, then, might not be misappropriately termed by a rude mariner, Jonah's locker- thatlocker—that is, the place where Jonah was kept ofor confined. Jonah's locker, in time, might be readily corrupted to Jones's locker; and Davy, as a very common Welsh accompaniment of the equally Welsh name, Jones, added, the true derivation of the phrase having been forgotten."|source=—W. Pinkerton, ''Notes and Queries'': Vol. III, No. 86, page 478, Saturday, June 21. 1851.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Project Gutenberg|date=September 21, 2011|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37496/37496-h/37496-h.htm|via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}</ref>
- W. Pinkerton|source=''Notes and Queries: Vol. III.—No. 86.'' - Saturday, June 21. 1851.<ref>{{cite web|title=''The Project Gutenberg''|date=September 21, 2011|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37496/37496-h/37496-h.htm|via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}</ref>
|align=right|width=40%}}
 
▲The origin of the tale of Davy Jones is unclear, and many conjectural<ref name="slang">{{cite book|last1=Farmer|first1=John S|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lUYVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129|title=A Dictionary of slang and Colloquial English|last2=Henley|first2=William Ernest|year=1927|pages=128–129}}</ref> or folkloric<ref name="mq">{{cite web|author=Michael Quinion|year=1999|title=World Wide Words|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dav1.htm|access-date=15 January 2013}}</ref> explanations have been told:
*''[[Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue|The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue]]'' by [[Francis Grose]], written in 1785 and published in 1811, includes the definitions: "DAVID JONES. The devil, the spirit of the sea: called [[Necken]] or [[Draugr]] in the north countries, such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden" and "DAVID JONES' LOCKER. The sea".<ref name="dotwt">[[Francis Grose|Grose, Francis]]. 1811. ''[https://archive.org/stream/1811dictionaryof05402gut/dcvgr10.txt Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence]'', 10th ed. [[Project Gutenberg]]. Retrieved 2021-11-16.</ref>
*Written within a foreign affairs segment within the newspaper 'Chester Chronicle' in 1791, the term 'Safe in Davy Jones's locker' was used to convey that a person was lost, therefore to be within Davy Jones's locker was to be lost at sea.<ref>Chester Chronicle - Friday 18 November 1791 - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000341/17911118/005/0002 </ref>
*The 1898 ''[[Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'' connects Davy to the [[West Indies|West-Indian]] ''[[duppy]]'' (''duffy'') and Jones to biblical [[Jonah]]: {{quoteblockquote|''He’s gone to Jones' locker'', i.e. he is dead. Jones is a corruption of Jonah, the prophet, who was thrown into the sea. ''Locker'', in seaman’s phrase, means any receptacle for private stores; and ''duffy'' is a ghost or spirit among the West Indian negroes. So the whole phrase is, "He is gone to the place of safe keeping, where duffy Jonah was sent to.|E. Cobham Brewer<ref name="fable"/>}} The reference to ''duppy/duffy'' was deleted in later revisions of Brewer's dictionary.
*David Jones, a real [[pirate]], although not a very well-known one, living on the [[Indian Ocean]] in the 1630s.<ref>{{cite book| last = Rogoziński| first = Jan| location = Ware, Hertfordshire, UK |Wordsworth Reference | title = The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates| isbn = 1-85326-384-2| date = 1997-01-01| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/wordsworthdictio00rogo}}</ref>
* Duffer Jones, a notoriously [[myopic]] sailor who often found himself overboard.<ref name="jones">{{cite book|last=Shay|first=Frank|title=A Sailor's Treasury|publisher=Norton|id=ASIN B0007DNHZ0}}</ref>
*A British pub owner who supposedly threw drunken sailors into his ale locker and then gave them to be [[Conscription|drafted]] on any ship.<ref name=mq/>
*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.<ref>{{cite web|title=August 22, 2014 Word of the Day: Davy Jones's Locker|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2014/08/22/|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref>
 
==Reputation==
[[File:USS Triton SSRN-586 - Crossing the Equator - Operation Sandblast - 1960.jpg|thumb|[[Line-crossing ceremony|Crossing the equator ceremony]] (with "Davy Jones" with yellow cape and a plunger as sceptre) aboard the {{USS|Triton|SSRN-586|6}}, 24 February 1960 as part of the [[Operation Sandblast]] cruise]]
Not all traditions dealing with Davy Jones are fearful. In traditions associated with sailors [[Line-crossing ceremony|crossing the Equatorial line]], there is a "raucous and rowdy" initiation presided over by those who have crossed the line before, known as shellbacks, or Sons of [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]]. The eldest shellback is called King Neptune, and Davy Jones is to be re-enacted as his first assistant.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvKiBiWKrzMC&q=davy%20jones&pg=PA76|pages=76–79|title=Naval Ceremonies, Customs, and Traditions|isbn=9781557503305|last1=Connell|first1=Royal W|last2=Mack|first2=William P|date=2004-08-01|publisher=Naval Institute Press }}</ref>
 
==Use in media==
{{exampleexcessive farmexamples|date=September 2019}}
 
===19th century===
in 1812, a musical pantomime 'Davy Jones's Locker, Or Black ey'd Susan' was performed at London's West End theatre; '''Sans PereilPareil''', known today as [[Adelphi Theatre]].<ref>Morning Chronicle - Wednesday 30 December 1812 - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000082/18121230/005/0003 </ref>
 
===20th century===
[[File:"Lubbers don't live - Oh learn a lesson from Joe Gotch" - NARA - 514926.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|World War II poster makes reference to Davy Jones's Locker.{{refn | group = n|Caption: Oh learn a lesson from Joe Gotch - Without a lifebelt he stood watch - "Abandon ship" came over the phones - He now resides with Davy Jones}} In nautical jargon, a lubber is a clumsy or inexperienced sailor.<ref>{{cite OED|lubber|id=110780}}j</ref>]]
 
In the 1930 cartoon "The Haunted Ship", from the [[Aesop's Fables (film series)|''Aesop's Fables'']] series produced by the [[Van Beuren Studio|Van Beuren animation studios]], Davy Jones is depicted as a living skeleton wearing a pirate's [[bicorne]] hat.▼
[[Theodore Sturgeon]]'s short story, "Mailed Through a Porthole" (1938), about a doomed freighter, takes the form of a letter addressed to "Mr. David Jones, Esq., Forty Fathoms."▼
 
[[Raymond Z. Gallun]]'s 1935 science fiction story "Davey Jones' Ambassador" (Astounding Stories, December 1935) tells the story of a deep-sea explorer in his underwater capsule who comes in contact on the seabed with a deep-sea culture of underwater creatures that resemble a mixture of sharks and crabs.▼
[[Tom Lehrer]]'s 1953 album [[Songs by Tom Lehrer]] includes the number "The Irish Ballad," in which one of the stanzas contains the lines "She weighted her brother down with stones / And sent him off to Davey Jones."<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/ricketyticketytin.html}}</ref>▼
 
▲[[Theodore Sturgeon]]'s 1938 short story, "Mailed Through a Porthole" (1938), about a doomed freighter, takes the form of a letter addressed to "Mr. David Jones, Esq., Forty Fathoms."
The 1959 Broadway musical ''Davy Jones' Locker'' with [[Bil Baird]]'s [[Marionette|marionettes]] had a two-week run at the [[Morosco Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/davy-jones-locker-morosco-theatre-vault-0000002430|title=Davy Jones' Locker @ Morosco Theatre|access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref>▼
 
Davy Jones is a character appearing in ''[[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]]'' comics authored by Tom Sims and [[Bela Zaboly]] between 1939 and 1959. He is depicted as a sea spirit who inhabits the bottom of the ocean as well as his Locker, which is located in a sunken ship. Although he has opposed Popeye in the past, both masters of the sea have grown mostly friendly towards each other. The being appears as an old pirate with a white beard, eyepatch, peg leg and hook.▼
In the 1960s television series ''[[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]]'' episode "Hitting The High Seas", the character Davy Jones (played by musician [[Davy Jones (musician)|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 [[pun]]s swapping the two in the decades that followed.▼
 
▲[[Tom Lehrer]]'s 1953 album [[Songs by Tom Lehrer]] includes the number "The Irish Ballad," in which one of the stanzas contains the lines "She weighted her brother down with stones / And sent him off to Davey Jones."<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/ricketyticketytin.html|title=The Irish Ballad / Rickety Tickety Tin [Tom Lehrer]|website=Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music}}</ref>
▲In the cartoon "The Haunted Ship", from the [[Aesop's Fables (film series)|''Aesop's Fables'']] series produced by the [[Van Beuren Studio|Van Beuren animation studios]], Davy Jones is depicted as a living skeleton wearing a pirate's [[bicorne]] hat.
 
▲The 1959 Broadway musical ''Davy Jones' Locker'' with [[Bil Baird]]'s [[Marionette|marionettesmarionette]]s had a two-week run at the [[Morosco Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/davy-jones-locker-morosco-theatre-vault-0000002430|title=Davy Jones' Locker @ Morosco Theatre|access-date=2016-09-25}}</ref>
▲Davy Jones is a character appearing in ''[[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]]'' comics authored by Tom Sims and [[Bela Zaboly]]. He is depicted as a sea spirit who inhabits the bottom of the ocean as well as his Locker, which is located in a sunken ship. Although he has opposed Popeye in the past, both masters of the sea have grown mostly friendly towards each other. The being appears as an old pirate with a white beard, eyepatch, peg leg and hook.
 
▲In the 1960s television series ''[[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]]'' 1967 episode "Hitting The High Seas", the character Davy Jones (played by musician [[Davy Jones (musician)|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 [[pun]]s swapping the two in the decades that followed.
▲Raymond Z. Gallun's science fiction story "Davey Jones' Ambassador" (Astounding Stories, December 1935) tells the story of a deep-sea explorer in his underwater capsule who comes in contact on the seabed with a deep-sea culture of underwater creatures that resemble a mixture of sharks and crabs.
 
===21st century===
The concept of Davy Jones was combined with the legend of the ''[[Flying Dutchman]]'' in the [[Pirates of the Caribbean film series|''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series]], in which Davy Jones's Lockerlocker is portrayed as a [[purgatory]] place of punishment for those who crossed [[Davy Jones (character)|Davy Jones]]. Jones is portrayed as a captain assigned to [[Psychopomp|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 (Pirates of the Caribbean)|Calypso]]. Davy Jones is portrayed in the movie as an enigma of the sea, featuring octopus tentacles for a beard and crab claw for a hand.
 
The phrase has often been referenced comedically in the animated television series ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', particularly by the show's [[List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters#The Flying Dutchman|ghostly personification]] of the Flying Dutchman.<ref>{{cite web |title="Brian Doyle-Murray: Flying Dutchman|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0707288/characters/nm0236519 |website=IMDB}}</ref> "Davy Jones's locker" has made occasional appearances in the cartoon as a physical gym [[locker]] used to contain [[soulsouls]]s, includingand socks. "[[SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One]]"|One alongside former [[The Monkees|Monkeesepisode]] band memberfeatures [[Davy Jones (musician)|Davy Jones]] from [[The Monkees]] claim ownership of the locker, as a pun on the pop singer's name.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Press |first1=Joy |title=Davy Jones: Four zany moments, from 'Brady Bunch' to 'SpongeBob' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/show-tracker/story/2012-02-29/davy-jones-four-zany-moments-from-brady-bunch-to-spongebob |website=Los Angeles Times |date=29 February 2012}}</ref>
 
French singer [[Nolwenn 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..."
 
In 2022 it was widely reported as referenced and explained by [[Karen Steyn|Mrs Justice Steyn]] to [[Rebekah Vardy]] in the [[Wagatha Christie]] trial.<ref>{{cite news |title='Who is Davy Jones?' Wagatha trial judge forced to explain phrase to Rebekah Vardy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/davy-jones-wagatha-christie-rebekka-vardy-b2078178.html |work=The Independent |date=20 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rebekah Vardy agent's phone is 'in Davy Jones' locker', court hears |url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/rebekah-vardy-agent-phone-davy-181702788.html |work=Yahoo News |date=12 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hyde |first1=Marina |title=Like a phone dropped in the North Sea, Vardy v Rooney is full of absolute gold |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/13/phone-north-sea-rebekah-vardy-coleen-rooney-libel-case |work=The Guardian |date=13 May 2022}}</ref>
 
==See also==
Line 85 ⟶ 89:
* [[Flying Dutchman]]
* [[Rán]]
* [[Burial at sea]]
 
==Notes==
Line 100 ⟶ 105:
[[Category:Superstitions]]
[[Category:Supernatural legends]]
[[Category:Fictional places in Disney filmslocations]]
[[Category:Nixies (folklore)]]
[[Category:Demons]]
[[Category:Supernatural beings identified with Christian saints]]
[[Category:Jonah]]
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