Why is the ocean or water called Davy Jones Locker in the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie?

Answer 1

The ocean has been called Davy Jones' Locker for a long time. It wasn't made up for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Here is an explanation of the origin of the phrase:

We knew that sailors used the phrase to refer to the bottom of the ocean, but we had no clue as to its origin. After entering the phrase "Davy Jones' Locker" in the Yahoo! search bar, we discovered several possibilities:

Michael Quinion's excellent World Wide Words site offers a great quote from Tobias Smollet's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751): "This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep...."

One legend suggests that a particularly fiendish pub owner named David Jones used to incapacitate hapless drinkers in his ale locker, and send them off aboard ships. Sounds like a handy way of disposing of your enemies.

Brewer¿s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable offers an interesting linguistic take on the issue: Davy is a bastardization of Duffy, the West Indian term for ghost. Jones comes from Jonah, the prophet who spent a few uncomfortable days lodged in the GI tract of a whale. And a locker, loosely defined, is a place to store valuable things. So the phrase "He's gone to Davy Jones' locker" (i.e., he cashed it in) loosely translates as "He's safe with Duffy Jonah now."

A random Navy Trivia page we stumbled across has some entertaining guesses: Duffer Jones was a notoriously myopic sailor who often found himself overboard. Davy could also come from the horned one himself, the Devil. The shortest sailor on board usually impersonates him during the the Crossing of the Line, a bizarre naval cross-dressing ceremony. The less said, the better.

And finally, we were happy to read that Cool Word of the Day denies a link between the phrase and Davy Jones of the Monkees. They also suggest that Davy comes from St. David, a patron saint of Welsh sailors, and reiterate the Jones/Jonah connection. That sounds reasonable enough to us.

Answer 2

It is a term that originated in early 1700's as the name of a creature that ruled over the evil spirits in the ocean, Sailors who died at sea were buried in the ocean AKA Davy Jones Locker.

Answer 3

Probably cause Davy Jones is the sea. He cant go on land. Only water.

Answer 4

I'm responding to your statement about black's not being intelligent. You are obviously not intelligent yourself. Many of the items you use day to day were created by a black person like the stoplight,gas mask,washing machine etc etc. There are many blacks that are doctor,lawyers,teachers etc. For you to generalize all blacks as ignorant shows how low your IQ is. You are obviously not a well educated person or you wouldn't talk so unintelligent. I'm proud to be black. I have a degree in psychology and I'm most definitely intelligent. I find that most whites (not all) that talk like you do come from very poor backgrounds. They also normally don't even possess a college degree!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

Cuz that is pirate talk and turns out it was Davy Jones infested!!!

Answer 6

Because he is the sea.

Answer 7

I don't know, but I found this.

Answer 8

Because people drowned. Duh!!:)