Sea power

Once the initial sense of unfamiliarity faded, the boredom of the largely unchanging sea and the dizziness brought on by the pitching waves descended on Clay together.

Although he had already been seasick once aboard the ship back to Westeros, Clay still felt rather unwell this time.

The once-spacious cabin seemed so cramped to Clay that it might suffocate him. Suppressing the urge to vomit rising in his throat, he pushed open the heavy cabin door and stepped outside, hoping the howling sea wind would dispel some of his dizziness.

As he left the cabin, the evening chill over the Bite made Clay shiver. Seeing him emerge, a quick-witted guard promptly draped a cloak over his shoulders.

Clay nodded to the guard, glanced over the quiet deck, and asked, "Where's Captain Stone?"

Dressed in only a thin layer of clothing, but too busy to feel cold at all, the guard pointed toward the raised wooden platform at the stern.

"Captain Stone is up there. Would you like me to take you over, my lord?"

Seeing young master Clay swaying a little, the guard asked out of concern.

Clay waved him off. Although he still felt somewhat uncomfortable, a witcher's powerful constitution placed a limit on that discomfort, and he could still bear it.

He climbed the wooden stairs to the platform, and the guard captain and Captain Stone came into view.

The last streak of crimson sunlight was about to disappear over the sea west of the Bite, leaving only the overlapping sounds of waves in his ears.

Hearing footsteps, Captain Stone and the guard captain turned around. They seemed to have been discussing something just now. When he saw that it was Clay coming up, the guard captain hurried to meet him.

"Young master, what brings you up here?"

He's a little seasick, and already prone to illness. If this sea wind makes him sick, it'll be serious trouble aboard a ship with so little medical care or medicine, the guard captain thought.

But his concerns were entirely unnecessary. A witcher's mutated body made Clay immune to the vast majority of diseases; a little sea wind would not leave him bedridden.

"It's nothing. I came up for some air. The cabin was far too stuffy."

Clay did not want to hear too many empty expressions of concern, so he changed the subject directly.

"What were you two discussing just now? May I listen?"

Although he phrased it as a request, Clay was the ship's undisputed commander, with nothing nominal about his authority. Besides, given his status, no one aboard could refuse his request.

"Of course, my lord."

Captain Stone, a rather rough-mannered man, smiled and shared what they had just been discussing.

"We were talking about this ship beneath our feet. My lord, how much do you know about our White Harbor fleet?"

Clay could truly only answer that he knew nothing. Ever since returning to Westeros, he had been busy with all sorts of things and had actually learned little about the family's affairs.

He only had a vague notion that White Harbor maintained a small fleet, but he did not know exactly how many ships it had or what its composition was.

Seeing the young heir shake his head, Captain Stone could only patiently explain the White Harbor fleet to his young master.

"Young master, our current White Harbor fleet was actually built up entirely by the Earl himself. In all, we have ten great sailing ships, twelve longships, and two galleys."

"Where does our fleet rank in all of Westeros?"

"Hard to say, but at the very least, Lord Stannis's royal fleet could crush us easily. They have three times as many warships as we do. Oh, and the Lannisters and Tyrells both have fleets no smaller than ours."

Clay nodded. This was more or less what he had guessed, but he noticed that Captain Stone had left out one very important place.

"What about the Iron Islands?"

To his surprise, Captain Stone shrugged, spread his hands, and said rather helplessly,

"Them? Put all the fleets I just mentioned together, and they'd probably be about even. And those Ironborn know nothing but shipbuilding. Give them some time, and I believe they could easily turn out two hundred ships."

Clay knew the Iron Fleet was the foremost navy in Westeros, but he had not expected such a vast gap. In naval warfare, excluding all other factors, at this level of technology, it came down to the number of warships.

"Besides, our sailors aren't as skilled as those Ironborn in the Iron Fleet. There's no helping it. There's hardly any land where they live. Plenty of them eat and sleep aboard their ships for a month or two at a time."

There really was no helping that. It was like making the people of Westeros compete with the Dothraki in horsemanship-plain bullying.

The ambition to dominate the Narrow Sea that had just risen in Clay's heart was immediately extinguished, but he was still unwilling to give up and asked,

"If the Iron Fleet is so strong, how did King Robert put down the Greyjoy Rebellion?"

"Heh, that's another story. Young master, you know Lord Stannis, commander-in-chief of the royal fleet? He commanded the Battle of Fair Isle, where the Iron Fleet was almost completely destroyed."

"Some say that if Lord Stannis hadn't destroyed the Iron Fleet, King Robert's army could only have stood on the shore doing nothing, let alone battered down the walls of Pyke."

At the mention of the Battle of Fair Isle, Captain Stone grew animated, excitedly recounting the course of that war to Clay.

Simply put, Duke Stannis had sent out bait to lure the Iron Fleet into the narrow stretch between Fair Isle and the mainland, then used the terrain to his advantage, directing the royal fleet to seal off the exits to the north and south.

After a chaotic battle, only a dozen or so ships of the Iron Fleet finally broke through the encirclement and escaped with their lives. All the rest were sunk at Fair Isle by the ironhearted Duke Stannis.

By destroying the Iron Fleet, the Baratheon royal house had gained command of the seas throughout Westeros in one stroke. After that, Robert could wage the war however he pleased, because he could land anywhere in the Iron Islands at any time.

Perhaps Captain Stone himself had not realized just how fully the war he described demonstrated the importance of sea power.

Take the North, for instance. The Neck's natural defenses were indeed easy to defend and hard to attack, but that applied to conventional warfare on land.

For a navy, those natural defenses simply did not exist. The Neck is hard to cross? Why not just sail around it!

How had Theon Greyjoy fought his way into Winterfell? He had not conquered the Neck and marched north. He had landed directly on the North's almost undefended western coastline and stormed straight into the city when it was at its weakest.

If even an inland city could suffer such a fate, then his own home, White Harbor, lay right on the coast. Once war broke out, House Manderly would have to leave enough troops to defend this fifth-largest city in Westeros.

Without command of the sea, failing to leave enough troops here would amount to handing White Harbor to the enemy. After all, more than half of House Manderly's strength was sustained by the wealth pouring in from White Harbor.

Looks like I'll have to suggest that the old man pour money into building a stronger navy someday. Tsk, I really am a wastrel...