Sinking the Jonah

[QuirkyBestiary]

I was recently looking through the mythological creature themed aesthetic boards created by a Tumblr user named 'Oldkitsune95' when I found one made in honour of a creature that I'd never heard of. It was called the 'Jonah' - and judging by the description given I could tell that it was clearly inspired by the individual of the same name in the Biblical story, but also that it seemed to be something different and rather unique. The description went as follows:
"A Jonah is a sailor or a passenger who is believed to be bad luck among pirates. In other legends, a Jonah is a monster who takes the form of a sailor to destroy the ship and kill all its passengers."
This interested me, because that is certainly a cool concept. It sounded like a maritime version of the 'disaster demon' from an early episode of Supernatural. I reblogged the post with an addition, asking OldKitsune95 for more information on the Jonah and possibly a source to back it up. The former of these was what I got, but the latter is still sorely lacking. The information that they gave me was:
"It is a legend known among pirates and, as I wrote, there are different interpretations. The monster called Jonah is like one of those ghosts from "Pirates of the Caribbean"... A monster made of corals, sponges and so on... Pirates believed that a passenger collected from the sea could possibly be this monster who devoured human beings, so they were afraid to save men from the sea"



Intrigued and excited at the prospect that there was an actual folkloric creature that resembled the ghosts from Pirates of the Caribbean (because those things were badass), I messsaged OldKitsune95 and asked for a source specifically. Unsurprisingly, they haven't got back to me yet - and it's been quite a while. Do any of you guys have any idea where they might have got this creature from? Is it even real?

[Valravn]

I'm not 100% sure of course, but to me (looking at the other rather popular creatures like Kitsune/Wendigo this tumblr-user has posted before) it seems to be a fakelore creature, much like the Kaster and Hvidslangen. Why would such an obscure creature be on a site with only popular creatures?

The mention of the Pirates of the Caribbean and the ignoring of a source mention only makes it worse to me. 

I'm using the Nanaue as a "passenger" type of creature which pushes other pirates/sailors/vikings into the ocean when other don't see it and then devours them one by one in it's shark form.

[QuirkyBestiary]

Hmm yeah, that makes sense. I like that idea for the Nanaue. I'm really curious as to where the Jonah came from, though. I might direct message OldKitsune95, just to follow up about it, because if it is real then it's a seriously cool find. And obviously I want a mythological monster that looks like the Pirates of the Caribbean thing.

[Valravn]

Aren't there a lot of humanoid creatures from the sea which could have such features, such details are mostly skipped in ancient texts. Draugr, the Adaro Leader (forgot his name), Arragauset, Even Shellycoat could have it :-p

[QuirkyBestiary]

Yeah, I suppose. The Adaro leader is called Ngarieru, btw. He is certainly an entity that looks a lot like the ghosts from PotC - but he is an individual as opposed to a species. The Shellycoats or Draugrs are interesting suggestions for that archetype, though.

[Sindran]

I think I remember reading somewhere (Wiki?) that Jonah was at one point considered the partial origin of the name Davey Jones. They probably read that too and got confused.

[QuirkyBestiary]

Huh, okay. Yeah - I think that might be the case. The Jonah is certainly a really interesting creature. It's given such a cool (if not especially unique) description, and the shared aspects of its appearance with the undead in PotC just really REALLY makes me want to accept it as a real mythical creature, but until I have a source which ain't a dubious little Tumblr aesthetics blog, I'm hesitant to include it.

[QuirkyBestiary]

OMG YES
I found the source for the Jonah and it is certainly a real thing! I first accessed the Wikipedia page for the Biblical Jonah, and then found a mention of the same description of the Jonah monster under the 'cultural influences' section. It said that it was a passenger who brought bad luck onto a vesssel, and although it mentioned nothing about how it looked like the PotC ghosts, it was certainly good enough for me. I clicked the source - and found my treasure. It was a New York Times article from 1885, and it was titled 'Afflicted with a Jonah; The Sea Captain's Fear of Parsons' Sons'. You can read it at this link!
There was also another reference to the Jonah as a disaster-bringing passenger, this time from the Collins English Dictionary also listed as a source in the Wikipedia article. It told me that a Jonah was a common noun used to refer to anyone who brings bad luck to those around them. There is still no mention of these Jonahs being genuine sea demons, and instead it seems more like they are victims of supernatural circumstance. I will keep looking into it, and eventually I'm almost certain that I'll find a source for its monstrous nature.

[chaoticmythboy]

congrats I know you were really looking for confirmation for that one!!

[QuirkyBestiary]

Yeup! I've been looking for that one for a loooooong time and eventually I gave up. And so of course I found it by accident.

[Sindran]

Should this be moved to the general bestiary if it's been confirmed as real?

[QuirkyBestiary]

Meh, I think it's more a dead thread on here due to it being successfully found. I guess that's the fate that awaits threads on here when they're either confirmed to be real or found to be conclusively fake. It's like a section of the community to track down obscure and possibly non-existent myths.