Davy Jones

That was a cool design.

But even then, I think of the way he used the island spirits, which kind of looks like Davy Jones' crew from Pirates of the Caribbean.

But I was like, there was so much more you could have done with that.

Like, the way you summon them and the way they react to you.

I am your host, Josh Linsk.

This show is part of History Podcasts, where you can discover more podcasts at historypodcasts.com. Today, we're diving into the mysterious origins and cultural evolution of Davy Jones Locker, how a maritime folklore term turned into a cinematic icon that now shapes Halloween costumes and memes.

Let's set sail.

The first time I heard the phrase Davy Jones' Locker was in a fishing documentary where an old deckhand muttered that it was the bottom of the ocean for lost sailors.

That line stuck with me, but I never realized how murky its origins are.

When you dig into the archives, Naval Chronicle from 1803, the dictionary in the 19th century tracing Davy to a ghost of Jonah.

It's more like a folklore-generated placeholder for the sea's unknowable depth, and that ambiguity gave writers and sailors free reign to turn the phrase into a mythic figure.

A personified demon of the deep who hoards drowned souls.

And the leader of the Nichols gang, who I'm assuming is just, I don't know, Nick Nichols, I don't know his name, but he's played by the man who would go on to be Mr. Mercer in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

The one who Davy Jones murdered with his tentacles, then said, you're afraid to get wet, like that guy.

Yeah.

Yes.

The cover's kind of cool.

He kind of looks like Davy Jones with the tentacles.

Oh, cool.

But somebody do that movie.

They didn't steal it from him.

And it had never occurred to me before, until I looked up that thing about the Davy Jones' crew and how that came out in 2006, but the way in which the sea gods, like, all of its tentacles have, like, cute vagina faces.

I don't know why I

phrased it like that.

I don't know, maybe four or six years before this.

He was in the second, I think, Pirates of the Caribbean movie where he was fucking Davy Jones with all the like he had a fucking octopus head and he was acting through an octopus head.

And you're like, this motherfucker can cope with some weird shit in terms of filming.

It ought to be great.

Yes, I love that Star Wars show.

Totally timelines are probably wrong on that, but who cares? And Davy Jones, the squid man.

Oh, yeah, everyone has heard of that.

Everyone knows about the Flying Dutchman,