By Brian E. Strayer
A few years ago, a retired friend and I watched the movie “Dunkirk” (2017) about the amazing rescue between May 26 and June 4, 1940, of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers trapped between Hitler’s advancing army and the English Channel. The film’s action is intense from beginning to end, but what particularly upset me were the scenes of men drowning, trapped inside sinking boats on their way to “Davy Jones’ Locker.”
Where did this odd expression come from? According to Why Do We Say It?, many believe that “Jones” is a corruption for “Jonah,” the biblical prophet sent to warn the citizens of Nineveh that if they didn’t repent, God would destroy their city. At first refusing to fulfil his divine commission, Jonah fled by sea to Joppa, but during a storm, he was tossed overboard and swallowed by a big fish (some say a whale) that took him deep down into the sea for several days before vomiting him up on the shore, somewhat worse for wear but willing to go to Nineveh nonetheless.
The term “Davy” is a variant of the word “duffy,” the West Indian African name for a ghost or spirit. So translated literally, “Davy Jones’ Locker” means “the locker of the spirit of Jonah.” This, of course, is found at the bottom of the sea. Read the short biblical book of Jonah this week!
Traitor on Two
Continents
In the 17th century, Englishmen in Britain and America used the term “an errant George Downing” as a synonym for traitor. Yet this man hated on two continents was the son of Emmanuel Downing, a Puritan missionary to Ireland and New England, and Lucy Winthrop, the sister of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay colony.
Sir George Downing (1624-1684), a member of the first graduating class from Harvard College in 1642, returned to England in 1647 to fight with Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War that overthrew and beheaded Charles I (1625-1649). Yet when his son, Charles II, was restored to the monarchy in 1660, Downing switched sides. Knighted as a baronet by the king, he headed a spy ring that betrayed many of his former republican friends. For his loyalty at Court and in Parliament, the king appointed him ambassador to the Netherlands.
But the Dutch expelled him after he helped the English acquire New Netherlands (renamed New York) in 1664, and the Americans hated him for writing many of the infamous Navigation Acts. For quitting his ambassadorial post, the king sent Downing to the Tower of London in 1672. Yet this despised minister, soldier, statesman, diplomat, spymaster, and politician, who died filthy rich, left a legacy that endures today. Both Greenwich Village and Brooklyn have named streets after George Downing, and in London, the Prime Minister’s official residence can be seen at #10 Downing Street, the most famous avenue that bears his name. Google a good website about George Downing this week!
Next week: True blue
