Donna Sue McCormick, age 12, of Marysville, Ohio, for her question:

What is Davy Jones' locker?

To men of the old sailing ships the sea, was full of mystery and peril. They lived in a mood of superstition, always ready to believe an evil omen or threatening ghost story.

The natives of the West Indies believed in a haunting ghost which they called a duppy. The sailors heard of this duppy, changed his name to Duffy and took him for their own. Duffy Jones, later Davy Jones became their spirit of the perilous, mysterious sea.

Davy Jones' locker, of course, became their name for the strongbox of the sea ‑ the ocean floor. The, wrecks of old ships and drowned sailors who sank beneath the waves were said to have ronc to Davy Jones' locker. And we still speak of sunken pirate; old as being drawn in Davy Jones' locker. It simply means at the bottom of the sea.