Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1885 — Davy Jones’ Locker. [ARTICLE]

Davy Jones’ Locker.

Sailors call the sea “Davy Jones’ Locker” because the dead are thrown there. Davy is a corruption of “duffy,” by which name' ghosts or spirits are known among the West Indian negroes, and Jones is a corruption of the name of the Prophet Jonah, who was thrown into the sea. Locker, in seaman’s parlance, means any recaptacle for private stores. So that when a sailor says, “He’s gone to Davy Jones’ Locker,” he means, “He is gone to the place of safe-keeping where duffy Jonah was sent to.”