Game of Thrones: The Road to Pirate King

Chapter 108 The Largest Ship – The Giant Ship "Wrath of the Gray Sea King"

The coastline of the Iron Islands has never been so bustling.

Under Euron Greyjoy's leadership, a new shipyard, far larger than any before, was built.

The Iron Islands consist of 31 main islands, with only seven main islands inhabited: Pike Island, Great Wake Island, Old Wake Island, Harlow Island, Salt Cliff Island, Kuroshio Island, and Oak Island. There is also Lone Light Island, but it is too far from these seven main islands to be easily overlooked. Thirteen smaller islands also surround Lone Light Island.

Of the remaining ten islands, some were used for sheep grazing, while most were uninhabited.

In recent years, Euron has successively developed Iron Smoke Island, which is dedicated to forging weapons and armor, Iron Fragrance Island, which is dedicated to brewing wine, and recently developed a deserted island dedicated to shipbuilding, called Iron Ship Island.

Huge logs were transported from the north, and the blacksmith workshops produced specially made nails and metal components day and night. The air was filled with the fresh scent of wood, the pungent smell of tar, and the aroma of the craftsmen's sweat mixed with the sea breeze.

What's being built here are no longer the long, narrow fast ships used for plunder, but warships truly designed for conquering the seas—larger hulls, more robust structures, and capable of carrying more warriors and powerful crossbows.

In the newly opened, secluded shipyard in Pike City, the noise never ceased, the sea breeze carrying the sweet scent of wood shavings, the pungent smell of tar, and the intense aroma of quenched steel. Here, a monumental project was underway that would change the fate of the Iron Islands—the construction of colossal ships capable of traversing the Narrow Sea and beyond, far exceeding the size of the longships used by the Ironborn for generations.

The construction of a giant ship is a massive and intricate process, and the first thing to be laid is the crucial keel.

It is not a single giant tree, but a complex structure made up of several centuries-old trees taken from the harsh northern lands, tightly connected by intricate mortise and tenon joints and reinforcing iron parts. Its astonishing length forms the spine of the giant ship.

Based on this, the craftsmen fixed the solid oak ribs, which had been bent and shaped by steam, one by one, like the skeleton of a giant beast, according to the carefully designed line drawings, outlining the huge body of the giant ship and the smooth lines that would cut through the waves in the future.

Countless thick oak planks were precisely installed onto the ribs by skilled craftsmen using mallets and chisels, layer upon layer, using an overlapping method to enhance the strength of the hull.

The gaps between each plank were firmly filled with hemp fibers soaked in tar. Afterward, the entire exterior of the hull was repeatedly coated with a mixture of hot asphalt and tar to form a tough, waterproof layer that resisted the erosion of seawater and the damage from ship-boring organisms.

The multi-deck structure began to emerge, with a sturdy main deck, deckhouse, and upper deck being erected, and the interior beginning to be divided into massive cargo holds, water tanks, crew cabins, and living quarters.

The building was designed to be exceptionally tall, providing not only a superior command view but also sufficient interior space to accommodate commanders like Euron for strategic deployments.

Several giant comb rods, each requiring dozens of people to encircle, were painstakingly erected by winches and manpower, deeply embedded in the reinforced base.

Made of the finest pine, they soared to the heavens. Craftsmen equipped them with a complex rigging system—a network of cables, pulleys, and spars crisscrossing like the nerves and muscles of a giant ship. Huge linen canvases, soaked in special oils for added strength and water resistance, were raised high enough to catch the slightest sea breeze and propel this sea fortress.

Along both sides of the hull, the pre-installed gun ports were opened one by one, and heavy crossbows were secured to them. These weapons would provide the giant ship with powerful long-range firepower. The prow was undergoing final sculpting, and would eventually be shaped into a terrifying image of a roaring sea monster or the Ironborn. Finally, the massive iron anchor was transported onto the ship, and everything was ready.

The outline of the giant ship gradually became clearer, and its enormous shadow was cast on the sea, instilling in all the Iron People who saw it a sense of dread mixed with pride and awe.

These are no longer speedboats for plunder, but sea behemoths born for conquest and long voyages. The future of the Iron Islands hangs in the balance of the sea, and the sea will ultimately belong to the fleet that possesses such colossal ships.

The colossal ship that was gradually taking shape in the secret shipyard of Pike City was far beyond the Ironborn's comprehension. Even the flagship "Iron Seed," which had once struck fear into the hearts of the seas, looked like a child at the feet of a strong man compared to this newborn sea monster, its size differing by more than five times.

It will not only be the largest ship ever built in the Iron Islands, but also in the entire Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and even in the nine prosperous and free city-states across the Narrow Sea, no one has ever built a warship of such scale.

Initially, King Coron was quite dismissive of Euron's ambitious plan.

In his traditional naval warfare concept, the Ironborn's advantage lies in the speed and agility of its longships, which can pounce on their prey as swiftly as a pack of wolves and disappear quickly among the fog and reefs.

"What's the point of having such a big ship?" he once said coldly to Euron, standing on the slipway before the keel was laid. "If the hull is too large, it will be clumsy to maneuver and a sitting duck among the nearshore reefs. We Ironborn rely on swords and courage, not on the quantity of wood we pile up."

He couldn't comprehend the forward-thinking strategic concept in Euron's mind because King Coron had never seen a terrifying entity called an "aircraft carrier"—a vessel that, without relying on traditional ramming and boarding maneuvers, could cast an indelible shadow on the enemy's mind and form an unparalleled strategic prestige simply by virtue of its sheer size and the infinite possibilities it carried.

Euron sought precisely this kind of existence: the colossal ship itself was a mobile sea fortress and a declaration; its very existence was a display of power, enough to rewrite the rules of naval warfare and redefine the Iron Islands' position in the world order.

In the Iron Islands, building a standard longship capable of carrying fifty to a hundred warriors is an instinct ingrained in their very being. A ship with a hull of twenty to thirty meters can be launched into the sea with just over ten skilled craftsmen, taking two to four months and costing approximately 1,500 gold dragons.

Even the flagship "Invincible Ironborn," which once struck fear into the hearts of countless coastlines, was built in just six months and cost less than three thousand gold dragons, yet it became the pride of the Ironborn. However, the colossal ship project that Euron Greyjoy insisted on promoting was of an astonishing scale.

This massive project took nearly a year, mobilizing almost all of the Iron Islands' most skilled shipbuilders—more than three hundred in total—to work day and night. The gold dragons spent flowed like water into the timber, ironwork, tar, and sail cables, ultimately bringing the total cost close to thirty thousand gold dragons—and this doesn't even include the enormous labor costs.

When this unprecedented sea behemoth finally completed all the procedures and, pulled by hundreds of logs, slowly slid into the sea accompanied by a deafening roar and splashing waves, the entire dock fell into a brief silence.

King Coron stood on the dock, his beard and hair soaked by the splashing water, but he was completely unaware.

He simply looked up at the towering hull, like a moving castle, the dense array of windows, and the colossal mast requiring several people to encircle it. The roaring sea monster carved on the prow seemed poised to devour someone at any moment. Its shadow covered a large portion of the dock. In that instant, all of Corren's previous doubts and disdain—regarding flexibility, tradition, and the staggering cost—were shattered by this pure, overwhelming presence.

He suddenly understood the power of those two words his son had uttered—"威" (wei, meaning power or authority)!

The King of the Iron Islands' mindset shifted remarkably quickly.

From initially dismissing it as a cumbersome and useless piece of junk; to being awestruck after seeing it with his own eyes, feeling that each golden dragon seemed to have transformed into an indestructible scale on the giant beast; and then, unable to suppress his curiosity, he personally boarded the ship and spent two days eating, sleeping, and inspecting it, until a surge of passion completely replaced all his doubts.

On the morning of the third day, he summoned all his old subordinates who had fought alongside the "Invincible Iron Seed" in battles across the country, and brought along a large group of eager young Iron Seed citizens who had come upon hearing the news. He then directly ordered the ship to set sail.

The colossal ship, named "Wrath of the Grey Sea King" by King Coron, first revealed its course not to a battlefield, but to embark on a circumnavigation of the Iron Islands. Like a moving black mountain range, it slowly and irresistibly sailed past Pike Isle, Great Wake Isle, Old Wake Isle, and Harlow Isle—passing through the bays and harbors of every major island.

King Coron stood proudly atop the imposing figurehead, the sea breeze ruffling his cloak.

He wasn't flaunting his wealth; he was demonstrating a new power, one that could crush the old. He wanted every Ironborn, fisherman, warrior, and lord, to see clearly what a terrifying monster his son, Euron of House Greyjoy, had brought to the Iron Islands—a monster capable of rewriting the future.