Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a watery grave; thus a metaphor for death in general.

1726		The four years voyages of Capt. George Roberts 89: Russell told them they should not [i.e. take away the author], for he would toss them all into Davy Jones’s Locker if they did.
[1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 71: I’ll be damned if it was not Davy Jones himself: I know him by his saucer-eyes, his three rows of teeth, his horns and tail, and the blue smoak that came out of his nostrils [...] This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks, and other disasters, to which sea-faring life is exposed: warning the devoted wretch of death and woe].
1781		‘Tar for All Weathers’ in Bullfinch 2: [T]hey sunk down in peace to old Davy.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: David Jones’s locker, the sea.
1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Greenwich Pensioner’ in Collection of Songs I 172: Sav’d from Davy’s locker, / We put to sea again.
1800		‘Poor Jack’ Garland of New Songs 2: The Danes and Spaniards too, / Went tumbling to old Davy.
1800		‘Jolly Jack of Dover’ Jovial Songster 77: Down you go to Davy Jones, and learn from him to dive now.
1801		M. Edgeworth Belinda (1994) 395: There’s no use in sounding for him, master, he’s down in Davy’s locker long ago.
1803		Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: We’ll repel the proud Foe, / Or to Davy we’ll go.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 46: I would not exchange you for all the pearls, gold and silver in Davy Jones’s locker.
c.1815		‘The Cabin Boy’ Collection of Eng. Ballads 96: Alack! I’m lost at sea, / Why sure in Davy’s locker, / There’s room enough for me.
1819		W. Maginn ‘The Eve of St. Jerry’ in Mackenzie Odoherty Papers 100: My flesh and bones go to David Jones.
1819		Jack the Giant Queller 12: We may expect one moment to be hung, / Sent to the Bay, or Davy Jones’s locker.
1821		London Minstrel 18: He tumbled in Old Davy’s locker, / And then he got liquor enough.
1829		D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan II ii: Here’s one of us for old Davy!
1829		Leicester Jrnl 4 Dec. 4/5: May old Davy Jones sink me in his locker.
1834		‘The Fourpenny Mot’ in Libertine’s Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 150: Sheer off, or I will to old Davy you pitch, / Why what have you done with your bowsprit, you b—h?
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. Nov. 614: I warn’t a-going to let the ould fellow think I was afeard of Davy Jones.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 289: If that young gentleman doesn’t pay a visit to Davy Jones’s dockyard for repairs, I know nothing about the matter.
1842		Comic Almanack Aug. 324: There is no reason right why Jones’s kid / Should be consign’d to Davy Jones’s locker.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 75: The colonel [...] having the fear of Davy’s Locker before his eyes.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 178: He will say to you, ‘Let them bear down upon me, then, before the wind; anything that smacks of life is better than to feel Davy Jones’s chest-lid on your nose.’.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 Apr. n.p.: An old cruising companion of her’s [sic] that she sthought had gone to Davy’s locker.
1850		J.C. Neal Pic-nic Sketches 44: Didn’t I tell ’em all we’d soon be down to David Joneses.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 29: DAVY’S LOCKER, or Davy Jones’ locker, a nautical phrase for death, for the other world.
1859		Bell’s Life in Tasmania 2 Aug. 4/1: [A]s emphatically as if she had learned that all our navy had simultaneously gone to Davy's locker.
1868		Reade & Boucicault Foul Play I 79: Seaton [...] asked him where he had sprung from. ‘Me!’ said Wylie, jocusely, ‘why I hailed from Davy Jones’s locker last.’.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 238: ‘Let’s send ’em to Davy Jones’s locker,’ some of the men exclaimed.
1877		‘Davy Jones’s Locker’ India-Rubber Face Song Book 2: He address’d each mate: What’s life, d’ye see, when our liberty’s gone, / Much nobler it were for to die, / So now for old Davy—then plunged in the main.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Feb. 2/2: ‘Poor Jack’ [...] shaken up in the grip of Old Neptune, and almost face to face with Davy Jones.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 May 22/1: For, if the sextant’s lost a hand, and the quadrant’s down so low, / It’s body and bones to Davy Jones – we’re duty bound to go.
1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 334: I may anchor ashore some day, if some fair maid will take me for what I am, but if not I shall find a berth in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor, or it may be in Davy Jones’ locker.
1887		Bowyer & Royle [perf. G.H. Mac Dermott] ‘Down went the Captain’ 🎵 For if Kate goes down to Davy Jones, then history will tell / How the Captain and his spoony crew went after her as well.
1894		H. Lawson ‘A Respectable Young Man’ in Roderick (1972) 270: It was war to the death — or Davy Jones — between ’em.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 23: Davy Jones’s Locker, the sea; gone overboard to the other world.
1895		J.S. Wood Yale Yarns 137: Had he not shown a little sand [...] where would they all have been today? ‘Why, in Davy Jones’s locker,’ says Little Jack.
1902		J. Masefield ‘One of the Bosun’s Yarns’ in Salt-Water Ballads 20: Our boats were bashed and bust and broke and gone to Davy Jones.
1906		Comic Section N.-Y. American and Journal 13 May 1: I do not admire that Davy Jones’ locker.
c.1912		T.E. Dunville [perf.] ‘And the Verdict Was’ 🎵 And the verdict was, / A little boat - two polonies - caught a crab - Davy Jones.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 247: It would be a fine piece of sail-making if that young man got grabbed by Davy Jones after I took all this trouble for him.
1918		‘A-No. 1’ Mother of the Hoboes 17: The runaway husband had met with his just deserts by being consigned to Davy Jones’ locker.
1920		V. Lindsay Golden Whales of Calif. 99: And way down deep, / Where fishes throng, / By Davy Jones’ big deep-sea door.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 361: Then you have a beautiful calm without a cloud, smooth sea, placid, crew and cargo in smithereens, Davy Jones’ locker. [Ibid.] 580: Mr Bloom could easily picture his advent on this scene – the homecoming to the mariner’s roadside shieling after having diddled Davy Jones.
1924		L. O’Neil ‘Knots’ in Dinkum Aussie and Other Poems 133: [as excl.] Oh, Davy Jones devour my bones! / You haven’t the sense to learn!
1930		(con. 1910s) L. Nason A Corporal Once 105: That port don’t get opened till we get to the other side, or to Davy Jones’ locker.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 97: Half the world’s shipping was locked up by blockade and a good half of what was free lay in Jones’s Locker.
1940		R.L. Bellem ‘Death’s Passport’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 112/1: By rights, Kensington should have been a skeleton festooning Davy Jones’ locker.
1953		Mad mag. June–July 11: Eat at Davy’s Locker.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 332: The Davey Jones Pool Company.
1963		W.C. Anderson Penelope 110: That’s one thing we don’t have in Davy Jones’ locker.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 52: Here’s the father and mother of a storm blowin’, the boat halfway down to Davy Jones.
1974		R.H. Morrieson Predicament 210: Man the Lifeboats! We’re going down with all hands and the cook. Down to Davy Jones’s locker.
1989		Kirk & Madsen After The Ball 146: Bearing their hapless victims to Davy Jones’ Locker.
1999		N. Stephenson Cryptonomicon 296: He heads downhill. Towards the bow. Towards Davy Jones’s Locker.

2. (UK und.) the Fleet prison (1197-1844), sited on Farringdon St next to the Fleet River, London.

1831

Satirist (London) 18 Sept. 191/3: Then talent will flourish; and lawyers, in fits, / See us light our cigars with their bills and their writs; / Whilst I, in my stirrups, and you, on your feet, / Will leave Jones’s Locker and Farringdon-street.