Davy Jones' Locker

Davy Jones' Locker
Appearances	Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
Location	Bottom of the Ocean Off the falls of World's End
Other names	The Locker
Inhabitants	Davy Jones William Turner Jack Sparrow (formerly; film continuity)

Davy Jones' Locker is a location from nautical folklore, most notably featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Description

Folklore

Davy Jones' Locker is the underworld of sailors, used to represent a watery grave. It is often affiliated with the counterpart of Fiddler's Green, a sort of Valhalla for sailors who served 50+ years at sea and as such are rewarded with a green land of endless liquor, food and fine music.

Pirates of the Caribbean (film-series)

Davy Jones' Locker is an underworld realm which personifies ships and souls lost to the ocean. The Locker was a seemingly endless, barren desert filled with beached ships and the souls of the dead. There was at least one shore in the Locker connecting to a paranormal ocean.

The locker can be accessed by one of three ways, the most commonly used being to die at sea at which point one is a prisoner of the Locker. The more practical to arrive at the locker and not be its prisoner is through the ghost-ship The Flying Dutchman. The Dutchman has the purpose of ferrying the dead from the land of the living to the land of the Locker with the alternative requiring souls to take themselves via floating in the open ocean of navigating the waters of world's end in rowboats.

The other way to safely travel to the Locker involved navigating to the Farthest Passage, a supernatural waterfall representing the ends of the Earth which was located at one of its poles. The only known map to World's End was the Mao Kun map which also detailed how to leave the Locker. To leave the locker, ships had to be flipped over at sunrise or sunset at-which-point they would return to Earth's surface.

History

Folklore

In folklore, Davy Jones' Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea. It is commonly affiliated with the deity-like entity of Davy Jones with the word, "Locker" traditionally being a synonym for the word, "Chest". The most commonly believed explanation for the locker's origin is that it is the result of circulation of saying, "The Devil Jonah's Locker" referencing the biblical Jonah who was imprisoned within the stomach of a whale by the Abrahamic god.

Pirates of the Caribbean (film-series)

The Locker is an underworld of unknown origin which to some extent was under the guardianship of the sea goddess Calypso. Around the 16th-17th century, Calypso seduced a mortal sailor named Davy Jones who she made the captain of the Flying Dutchman and warden of the Locker. However, this position resulted in Jones not being able to step foot on dry land except for one day every ten years, a day arranged for him and Calypso to be together.

For ten years Jones served his duty as captain of the Dutchman but on the one day that he and Calypso could be together, she didn't show up. Heart-broken, Jones made an arrangement with the first Brethren Court, an international organization of pirates who wished to bind Calypso so that they could control the seas for themselves. The arrangement succeeded and Calypso was bound within the human form of a Haitian woman named Tia Dalma as Davy Jones proceeded to lock away his heart and corrupt his purpose.

In 1729, the fourth Brethren Court of Shipwreck Cove decided free Calypso after the East India Trading Company enslaved Davy Jones to be an agent of British imperialism. After being freed, Calypso would betray the Court and create a maelstrom which terrorized the pirates, British and Flying Dutchman.

Appearances and allusions

Adventure Isle (Disneyland Paris)

On the pirate-half of Adventure Isle is a cavern called, "Davy Jones' Locker" which is littered with pirate skeletons and treasure.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Outside of Big Thunder's town of Tumbleweed, Arizona is a mining-cavern labelled as, "Dave V. Jones' Locker" which is an apparent allusion to Davy Jones' Locker.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Locker is indirectly referenced by several characters in the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride via short-hand dialogue referencing Davy Jones. Notably characters to utilize the idiom include Captain X, Captain Barbossa (replacing Blackbeard), the hook-handed pirate, and the pirate Redd.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure

The literal Davy Jones' Locker at the bottom of the sea appears in Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure. Jack Sparrow uses unknown magic from Treasure Cove's Caverns of Doom to break into these depths and rob Davy Jones of his treasure.

Film-franchise

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

In this film, Davy Jones' Locker is referenced by William Turner while threatening to take his own life in the ocean and by Pintel referencing how the crew of the Black Pearl strapped William's father to a cannon and cast him into the ocean.

Trader Sam's

Davy Jones' Locker is mentioned in the menu for Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar and Trader Sam's Grog Grotto in the section dedicated to the Shipwreck on the Rocks drink. Ordering this drink triggers a miniature Wicked Wench to sink in a storm.

Connections

Haunted Mansion

There is a portrait of the Flying Dutchman from folklore located within the Haunted Mansion's portrait corridor.

Phantom Manor

A portrait of the Flying Dutchman from the films appears within the collection of Henry Ravenswood in Ravenswood Manor.

Trivia

• The Green Flash is a real-life meteorological optical phenomena affiliated with sailor lore. The phenomena was popularized in 1882 by author Jules Verne in his novela The Green Ray.
• There are several characters and entities who have faced a watery grave in Disney Parks lore who might be inhabitants of Davy Jones' Locker.
  • Blackbeard.
  • Captain Nemo and the crew of the Nautilus.
  • Ursula.