The fictional character Davy Jones is an octopus-faced, tentacled, googly-eyed man whose heart is kept in his chest as a permanent reminder of love’s betrayal. But he is not known for violence. A cruel sailor with an eternal desire. When most people think of “Davy Jones Locker,” they think of Davy Jones with an octopus face.

Of course, for observers, Davy Jones Locker is where Jones claims the Black Pearl after making a pact with Jack Sparrow in the film. In addition to this film, many other films, novels, and poems have told the story of the Davy Jones Locker.

What is Davy Jones Locker?

It can be said that there is always an element of truth in fiction. The story surrounding Davy Jones Locker illustrates this fact even better. However, the real story behind this phrase is very different from the fictionalized version. Some of the details of the legend seem to be true. According to maritime mythology, the phrase “Davy Jones Locker” is an idiom referring to the ocean floor.

Where thousands of sailors who drowned at sea slept, sailors use this term to refer to objects such as a sailor’s afterlife or a ship destined to rest on the ocean floor. Nevertheless, this expression is euphemistic. Has long been part of the English language, and the word’s origin remains controversial.

Stories, Myths, and Legends About the Locker 

The first mention of Davy Jones Locker dates back to the 18th century. It became a nautical superstition among sailors and pirates. In the past, the name Davy Jones was referred to as the sailor’s devil, sometimes the evil god of the sea.

However, historians have not been able to pinpoint the term’s origin, arguing that its roots date back centuries and the stories have been passed down orally through the generations.

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The origin of this expression remains unclear, but several attempts have been made in the past to explain the truth behind it. The best of these stories have appeared in movies and books. It is Jones’s story as the captain of the mysterious ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman. He was also responsible for transferring his soul to another world, and ten years later, he was able to come ashore and reunite with Calypso, the goddess of the sea. But when he returned, she wasn’t there.

The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman is the centre of maritime legend. It is a legendary ghost ship that could not enter port due to rough seas and was condemned to sail the ocean forever. In one of his other stories, Davy Jones refers to David Jones, a pirate captain who sailed across the Indian Ocean in the 1630s.

However, many historians deny this possibility, arguing that the person mentioned in this story was not popular enough. To become a legend, as was the case with Davy Jones. Davy Jones, a British publican who ran a pub, tells a different story. 

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This incarnation of Davy Jones would get his customers drunk, lock them in beer racks, and sell them as slaves to passing ships. A British pub owner became a pirate after going bankrupt. He stole ships and sailed them across the Atlantic to capture other ships and their crews overseas. He beheaded most of the crew, but the rest were imprisoned before the ship sank.

For some, Davy Jones represents a notorious myopic sailor named Duffer Jones, who often fell overboard from ships. Another interpretation of this type notes that a 19th-century dictionary calls the name “the spirit of Jonah, the Biblical sailor,” and the name meant dire fortune for sailors.

Context Bible

According to the Bible, God punished Jonah for his disobedience, and Jonah became a “devil of the sea” and was killed by the ship’s crew. Another version of the Jonah story mentions a prophet who happened to spend several days inside a whale, linking his days on the whale route with  Davy Jones Locker. In the Welsh seafaring community, Davy Jones refers to their patron saint, St. David. They believe it will save them from the harsh sea nature.

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According to this legend, St. David only protects good sailors, and immoral sailors are sent to Davy Jones Locker. Some theories also suggest that “Davy Jones” comes from the name  Duppy, an evil West Indian spirit.

According to a legend that spread among the islanders, Duppy comes out at night and stalks humans. However, these stories are not supported by reliable evidence. These remain just stories. So, for some sailors, Davy Jones is just another name for Satan.

Reference to Davy Jones Locker 

It is said that when the story of Davy Jones was very popular, many sailors refused to discuss it in detail. At the same time, however, a tradition of paying homage to Davy Jones was practised, especially when celebrating crossing the equator. Meanwhile, long before the  Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the story of Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and his rocker appeared in several books, especially those dealing with pirates.

Captain Daniel Defoe’s voyage of four years. George Roberts, published in 1726, is thought to be the first known work to mention Davy Jones’s Pirates of the Caribbean name in a negative sense. Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, is also mentioned in Tobias Smollett’s 1751 book.

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The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle mentions hurricanes, shipwrecks, and evil spirits that appear in various forms on the eve of disaster. However, the first mention of Davy Jones Locker was found in the Naval Chronicles of 1803. In the 19th century, Davie Jones and his rockers appeared in several marine and adventure novels. 

Washington Irving’s 1824 The Adventures of the Black Fisherman and Edgar Allan Poe’s 1835 novel The Plague King are notable examples of such works. Herman Melville’s 1851 classic novel Moby Dick, Charles Dickens’ The Bleak House (1852-1853), and Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 work. 

Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and other 19th-century works mention Treasure Island. In subsequent centuries, similar characters were depicted in various works of literature, and although the truth behind Davy Jones and his locker has been debated, the legend has been mentioned several times.