Question: I don't understand the term "Davey Jones' Locker", who exactly was Davey Jones?
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Answer: The phrase "Davy Jones' Locker" refers to the bottom of the sea, the resting place of drowned seamen. Origins of the phrase are deeply buried and there are many possible sources, ranging from "Jones" being a corruption of the Biblical name Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale, to a reference to a 16th-century pub owner named David Jones who had an unsavory practice of drugging unwary sailors and storing them in a locker till they could be pressganged aboard a ship. Still another reference suggests that David Jones was a fearsome pirate who frequently forced his enemies to walk the plank, thus having them end up at the bottom of the sea. The first clear usage of the phrase 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...". In any case, the real Davy Jones (if there was one) is unknown. Most of these tales are believed to be folklore but the phrase has still passed into the pirate lexicon.
Phil C.