Oarsman
A oarsman is a man who rows a ship.
Contents
Customs
Oarmasters on ships use drums to set a rhythm for oarsmen to follow.[1][2][3] During boarding actions, all of the crewmen of Ironborn, including oarsmen, are equipped with weapons and are expected to fight, though only a tenth of the crew (marines, rather than oarsmen) are wearing armor.[4]
Culture
Seven Drunken Oarsmen is a mummers play.[5]
History
Windproud, a two-masted galley with a hundred oarsmen and sailors, broke up during a storm in Shipbreaker Bay, killing everyone on board (except for Patchface), including Lord Steffon Baratheon and his wife, Lady Cassana Estermont.[6] King Robert's Hammer, called Rob's Hammer by its oarsmen,[7] is the largest ship in service with the royal fleet of the Iron Throne,[2] having four hundred oars.[7]
When the Treasure, a Braavosi trading galley carrying the grey plague, landed on Pentos, the Pentoshi slew the ship's oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats crept down the oars and paddled to the quay on cold stone feet; the plague killed over two thousand people in the city.[8]
Moreo Tumitis has sailed the Narrow Sea for roughly thirty years, first as oarsman, then as quartermaster, and now as captain of the ship Storm Dancer.[9]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
When Storm Dancer arrives in King's Landing, Catelyn Stark rewards each of the oarsmen with a silver stag. The captain Tumitis offers to hold onto his crew's silver until they return to Tyrosh, but Catelyn insists on personally paying each oarsman.[9]
A Feast for Crows
Old Tattersalt, the captain of the Blackbird, broached a cask of firewine to fortify the oarsmen during their voyage to Braavos. Dareon sings "The Day They Hanged Black Robin" and other songs to the oarsmen.[10]
Aurane Waters suggests that thieves and poachers be made oarsmen of Cersei's dromonds instead of being sent to the Night's Watch.[11] The standard Westerosi dromond has a hundred oars and oarmen, with the larger ships adding more decks of a hundred oarsmen.[4]
The Red Oarsman, a captain of the Iron Fleet, joins with Euron Greyjoy when the Crow's Eye declares himself King of the Isles and the North.[12]
Joss the Gloom tells Cat of the Canals that two mummers left the Ship, leaving the performance of Seven Drunken Oarsmen without two oarsmen, which thus had to be cancelled.[5] Cat of the Canals then pushes Brea's wheelbarrow to the Purple Harbor to sell crabs and prawns to oarsmen of Sealord Ferrego Antaryon's pleasure barge, which is covered stern to stern in laughing faces.[5]
A Dance with Dragons
Droopeye Dale, an oarsman, is known to take naps between strokes.[13]
Victarion Greyjoy, the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet, has one of his oarsmen scourged for accusing Moqorro of summoning demons.[14] His Iron Fleet later captures two galleys, whose captains claim that Daenerys has died, so Victarion beheads them, kills most of their crew, and then frees their enslaved oarsmen, who are then forced to row for the Iron Fleet.[15]
Quotes
Varys: Ser Horas and Ser Hobber Redwyne have bribed a guard to let them out a postern gate, the night after next. Arrangements have been made for them to sail on the Pentoshi galley Moonrunner, disguised as oarsmen.
Tyrion: Can we keep them on those oars for a few years, see how they fancy it? No, my sister would be distraught to lose such treasured guests.[16]—Varys and Tyrion Lannister
References
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 11, Theon I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 58, Davos III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 10, Davos II.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 29, The Reaver.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 34, Cat Of The Canals.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Prologue.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 41, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 5, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 18, Catelyn IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 15, Samwell II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 17, Cersei IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 11, The Kraken's Daughter.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 26, The Wayward Bride.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 63, Victarion I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 8, Tyrion II.